Tadcaster has got its own official website - thanks to hairdresser Angela Usher and her trucker husband, Andrew.

The couple have launched the site - on www.tadcaster.uk.com - featuring scenes from the town and its history, in particular Tadcaster's famous breweries.

It also carries adverts for local businesses and others from further afield, and Angela says they are now winning orders from all over the country and even abroad.

Angela, who jointly runs Clayton Stripe International hair salon in Wharfe Bank Terrace, said Andrew had made a website for the salon last year and a friend, Clive Gott, had said: "Why don't you create one for Tadcaster?"

"He put a wager on it, saying if we hadn't got our money back by June 30, he would refund everything we had paid out. But it paid its way in the first month."

The couple formed a limited company, Ush Websites Ltd, and Angela designed the webpages, including a front page featuring the parish church and John Smith's Brewery, while Andrew concentrated on all the programming.

"It's been absolutely fantastic," said Angela. "We've had hits from all over the world. People are often interested in Tadcaster's associations with brewing.

"We also got quite a good letter from America, saying they had been at a dinner party and voted John Smith's Smooth one of the best beers in the world, and they wanted to know where they could get hold of it.

"We got on to the brewery and they gave us a San Francisco telephone number, from where they could get the beer, and we e-mailed them the number."

She said one American browser came across the site and wanted to know how to get to the town from York by train. They let him know there was no railway link.

Meanwhile, Barry Davies, a butcher in Bridge Street, was getting orders from all over the United Kingdom since going on the site.