What is a Cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu for a video about cookies visit www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/data-on-the-web/cookies

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below.

  1. Strictly necessary cookies - These cookies enable services you have specifically asked for.
    These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like shopping baskets or e-billing, cannot be provided.
  2. Performance cookies - These cookies collect anonymous information on the pages visited.
    These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.
  3. Functionality cookies - These cookies remember choices you make to improve your experience.
    These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
  4. Targeting cookies or advertising cookies - These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising relevant to you and your interests.
    These cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisation.

Should you require further information, there are several useful sources, the details of which we have provided below:

A video explaing how cookies are used: www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/data-on-the-web/cookie
More detailed information on cookies: www.allaboutcookies.org
A guide to behavioural advertising and online privacy: www.youronlinechoices.eu
Information on the ICC (UK) UK cookie guide: www.international-chamber.co.uk/our-expertise/digitaleconomy

Strictly necessary cookies

Cookie Name: PHPSESSID Duration: Session Provider: The Headboard Workshop Ltd. Category: 1,2,3

Purpose: This is an overall PHP session cookie that is used to preserve user data throughout their browsing 'session', used to link a user to things such as the contents of their shopping basket
What information it holds: Unique identifier that references server-side data related to the browsing session of the user
User Benefits: Allows for persistence of user data throughout browsing session. This enables the management of elements such as the contents of a shopping basket and whether a user is logged in or not

Performance cookies

Cookie Name: PHPSESSID Duration: Session Provider: The Headboard Workshop Ltd. Category: 1,2,3

Purpose: This is an overall PHP session cookie that is used to preserve user data throughout their browsing 'session', used to link a user to things such as the contents of their shopping basket
What information it holds: Unique identifier that references server-side data related to the browsing session of the user
User Benefits: Allows for persistence of user data throughout browsing session. This enables the management of elements such as the contents of a shopping basket and whether a user is logged in or not

Cookie Name: _utma Duration: Undefined Provider: Google Category: 2

Purpose: This cookie is typically written to the browser upon the first visit to your site from that web browser. If the cookie has been deleted by the browser operator, and the browser subsequently visits your site, a new __utma cookie is written with a different unique ID. This cookie is used to determine unique visitors to your site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is provided with a unique ID that Google
Analytics uses to ensure both the validity and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure.
What information it holds: Unique id identifying site and a number of timestamps related to current and previous visits to the site
User Benefits: No benefit to user but required by and set by Google Analytics

Cookie Name: _utmb Duration: 30 Minutes Provider: Google Category: 2

Purpose: This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session with your site. When a user views a page on your site, the Google Analytics code attempts to update this cookie. If it does not find the cookie, a new one is written and a new session is established. Each time a user visits a different page on your site, this cookie is updated to expire in 30 minutes, thus continuing a single session for as long as user activity continues within 30-minute intervals. This cookie expires when a user pauses on a page on your site for longer than 30 minutes.
What information it holds: Data used to identify the site being viewed and the number of pageviews
User Benefits: No benefit to user but required by and set by Google Analytics

Cookie Name: _utmc Duration: Undefined Provider: Google Category: 2

Purpose: This cookie is no longer used by the ga.js tracking code to determine session status.Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. For backwards compatibility purposes with sites still using the urchin.js tracking code, this cookie will continue to be written and will expire when the user exits the browser. However, if you are debugging your
site tracking and you use the ga.js tracking code, you should not interpret the existence of this cookie in relation to a new or expired session.
What information it holds: Data used to identify the site being viewed and the number of pageviews
User Benefits: No benefit to user but required by and set by Google Analytics

Cookie Name: _utmz Duration: 6 Months Provider: Google Category: 2

Purpose: This cookie stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach your site, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and page navigation within your own site. The cookie is updated with each page view to your site.
What information it holds: variety of data used to identify traffic source and how you entered the site. Could include things like keywords from google or PPC campaign information
User Benefits: No benefit to user but required by and set by Google Analytics

Functionality cookies

Cookie Name: PHPSESSID Duration: Session Provider: The Headboard Workshop Ltd. Category: 1,2,3

Purpose: This is an overall PHP session cookie that is used to preserve user data throughout their browsing 'session', used to link a user to things such as the contents of their shopping basket
What information it holds: Unique identifier that references server-side data related to the browsing session of the user
User Benefits: Allows for persistence of user data throughout browsing session. This enables the management of elements such as the contents of a shopping basket and whether a user is logged in or not

Analytics cookies

These cookies help us to better understand the performance of our website and the different marketing channels that we use - full information on Google Analytics cookies is here: 

http://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsCookies#cookiesSet