A decade of Rohallion

Rohallion was born ten years ago today. It came about because I was made redundant back in 2016, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me the kick to set up Rohallion and see how I'd fare running an agency on my own terms. Back on our 5th birthday I wrote that the jury was still out. Today, on our 10th, I think the verdict is in.

From purpose-driven generalists to local government specialists

Rohallion started life as a Drupal agency working with NGOs, universities and other purpose-driven organisations trying to do good in the world. Some of our earliest and most rewarding work was built with the Overseas Development Institute, the University of Edinburgh and SouthSouthNorth. Those projects taught us how to build things that mattered to people who didn't have big budgets or big development teams, just a genuine need to get their work in front of the world.

That grounding is part of why, when local authority work started landing on our desk, it felt like a natural next chapter rather than a departure. Councils needed the same things those early clients needed: a CMS that didn't fight them, and an agency that would actually turn up. Since then we've made the deliberate choice to become a LocalGov Drupal specialist, working with councils including Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, Oxfordshire County Council, Newark and Sherwood, and Dumfries and Galloway.

Where we've landed

We're proud to be a LocalGov Drupal Certified Supplier, listed on G-Cloud 15 and accredited by the Good Business Charter and the Living Wage Foundation. We enjoy giving back to the community we're part of, too, contributing modules to the wider LocalGov Drupal project and continuing to maintain them. And through 1% for the Planet, we're doing what we can to make a difference beyond our own work.

Thank you

None of this happens on its own, so today is about the people who got us here.

To everyone who's been part of the Rohallion journey over the years, thank you. Rob Carr, Ruth Cameron and John Hume were early collaborators who helped lay the groundwork for where we are today. Chris Wales, our first employee, brought a genuine love of solving hard problems. And our current team, Marek, Dan, Paula and Conell, thank you for your hard work and for building the agency we're proud of today.

To our partners: Markus and Jochen Lillich at freistil IT, who've been there since the beginning, and our adviser and friend Mat Bennett. And thank you to our partners who've worked with us in more recent years on our LocalGov Drupal work: Dave Hampton, Ben Hills-Jones, Jack Arnott, Chris O'Leary and Steph Tucker.

And to our clients, past and present, thank you for trusting us with work that mattered. To the NGOs and universities who took a chance on us early on, and to the councils who've trusted us with their reorganisation and migration work since, thank you for the projects, the partnership, and the trust you've placed in us as we've built our specialism in local government.

What's next

The next few years are going to be busy. The wave of local government reorganisation is only going to grow, and we're determined to keep contributing to the LocalGov Drupal community as it grows with it. We don't know exactly what Rohallion will look like at 15 or 20 years old, but we know we'll get there the same way we got here: being proud of what we do, enjoying what we do, and hopefully making a difference.