A new website for the Greater Manchester branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers. It runs on the platform we built for Dyfed Powys NARPO, has an identity drawn from Manchester itself, and brings every obituary across from the old site: 1,873 of them.
The branch's previous website was a table-layout export from an office document. It held years of records, including every death notified to the branch since 2006, but nothing reusable in the way of design. The branch has more than 1,700 members, retired from Greater Manchester Police and the forces that became part of it in 1974.
Rather than start from nothing, we built on the platform we made for Dyfed Powys NARPO: the same block system, obituary register and members area. Everything a visitor sees is new. The colours, the type, the page furniture, and every word and photograph are Manchester's.
The design draws on the police Sillitoe chequer, Manchester's worker bee and the three gold bands of the city's arms, which stand for the Irwell, Medlock and Irk. The force badge is left out on purpose: it belongs to a serving force.
Warm cotton paper against Mancunian slate, with brass as the only accent. Newsreader and IBM Plex are self-hosted, so no fonts are fetched from a third party.
The register holds every entry from 2006 to 2025, filed by year and searchable by name. Entries with a full tribute have a page of their own.
Holiday properties, useful links and the list of local branches are each managed like news articles, with filters, so adding one never means editing a page.
The homepage carries the latest news and a branch noticeboard with the AGM and a diary of dates. Both are ordinary WordPress content, so updating them never means touching the layout.
Only the AGM papers sit behind the branch password. The rest of the site is open to everyone.
The masthead folds into a menu, the register stays searchable and the body text stays at a comfortable size on a small screen.
Every text colour clears WCAG AA, and most clear AAA. Focus rings show instantly and never animate, so keyboard users always know where they are.
The branch says its obituaries are the most-read part of the website. The register filters by name as you type and shows how many entries match. Funeral details stay on a notice only until the funeral has been held.
Tywi Digital builds websites for associations, branches and member-led organisations with records to keep and members to serve.
