About Visit Olney & Partners

Olney was named one of the best places to live in 2018 by The Sunday Times and part of the attraction is the small, independent businesses that make this a different kind of High Street. We are relaunching our website to tell the stories of the shopkeepers and restaurant owners. Whether you are a tourist or live or work in the town, we showcase all the unique experiences and great customer service you can get from your visit. 

Visit Olney is a not for profit enterprise; we are fortunate to have the support of the local business people you see on our homepage. This collaboration is part of the Visit Olney campaign to promote the town by  showing the hard work by those who run small businesses. They are important to the fabric of the place; many are tucked out of view in courtyards, so we hope to put them on the radar.

We first launched in 2008 and the site has had millions of hits to its original website in that time; it was a founder organiser of the Big Olney Food Festival (we will feature the work of community organisations like The Olney Group and Olney Events who run such things too.)

Ten years on, and we unveiled a plan to upgrade the site to boost visitor numbers by attracting people from further afield and to raise the profile of Olney. We have consulted with a wide range of people wishing to promote more tourism and see greater use of local shops. But we are independent of local authorities and not funded them in any way.

However, we are grateful to Museum trustees who have encouraged this project, to local photographer Steve James whose wonderful images feature heavily in the site. And of course, to our partners in local businesses who have made this project possible.

Some of the earliest backers of Visit Olney you will meet in our other features; people who are in many cases the faces of Olney. The collaboration is a new approach. But as Cheryl Wilson, of C.T Wilson’s, one of the most forward-thinking business people in one of the longest established firms in the town reflects, “you have to move with the times and innovate.”

If you would like to get in touch, please email hello@visitolney.com