Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 2026
The World Turned Upside Down (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit or use our website: www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk
It also explains your rights under applicable UK data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Who we are
The World Turned Upside Down is published by:
History West Midlands
Minerva Mill
Station Road
Alcester
B49 5ET
United Kingdom
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us at: web@worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk
For data protection purposes, the organisation responsible for your personal information is:
History West Midlands
Minerva Mill
Station Road
Alcester
B49 5ET
United Kingdom
2. Information we collect
Depending on how you use our website, we may collect some or all of the following information:
Information you provide to us
This may include:
- Your name
- Email address
- Postal address
- Billing and delivery address
- Telephone number
- Information provided when you contact us
- Information provided when you subscribe to our mailing list
- Information relating to purchases made through our online shop
- Account login information where you create an account
- Any other information you voluntarily provide to us
Information collected automatically
When you visit our website, certain information may be collected automatically, including:
- IP address
- Browser type and version
- Device type
- Operating system
- Approximate location derived from your IP address
- Pages visited and links followed
- Date and time of visits
- Referring website
- Information about how you interact with our website
Some of this information may be collected through cookies or similar technologies. Further information is provided in our Cookies section below.
3. How we use your information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- To provide and operate our website
- To process and fulfil orders placed through our online shop
- To process payments and manage transactions
- To communicate with you about your orders
- To respond to enquiries and requests
- To provide customer support
- To administer website accounts
- To send newsletters and other communications where you have subscribed or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so
- To provide information about new programmes, articles, resources, events or other activities associated with The World Turned Upside Down
- To maintain and improve our website
- To monitor website performance and usage
- To prevent fraud, abuse and other unlawful activity
- To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
- To establish, exercise or defend our legal rights
We will only use your personal information where we have a lawful basis for doing so.
4. Lawful bases for processing
Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under UK data protection law:
Contract
We may process information where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example when processing and fulfilling an order placed through our online shop.
Legal obligation
We may process personal information where this is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation, such as accounting, taxation or other legal requirements.
Legitimate interests
We may process information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
Examples may include operating and improving our website, administering our services, responding to enquiries, maintaining website security and protecting against fraud.
Consent
Where required, we will ask for your consent before processing your information. This may include certain marketing communications or non-essential cookies.
Where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
5. Mailing list and MailerLite
If you choose to subscribe to our mailing list, we will collect the information necessary to send you our communications, normally including your name and email address.
We use MailerLite to manage our mailing list and send email communications.
MailerLite processes personal data on our behalf as a data processor. We use MailerLite to store subscriber information, manage subscriptions and send newsletters and other communications.
You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in our emails.
When you unsubscribe, we will stop sending you marketing communications, although we may retain limited information where necessary to ensure that we respect your request not to receive further marketing communications.
Further information about how MailerLite processes personal data is available in its Privacy Policy and details of how they are GDPR compliant.
6. Online shop and WooCommerce
Our online shop uses WooCommerce, a WordPress-based ecommerce platform.
When you place an order, we may collect information such as:
- Name
- Billing address
- Delivery address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Order details
- Payment and transaction information
- Information relating to your customer account, where applicable
This information is used to process and fulfil your order, provide customer service, maintain appropriate financial and business records and comply with our legal obligations.
WooCommerce may store information associated with your order and customer account on our website and hosting infrastructure.
We do not use your payment card number for our own purposes. Payment information may be processed by the third-party payment provider selected during checkout.
You should also review the privacy information provided by the relevant payment provider.
7. Payments
Payments made through our website are processed by third-party payment providers.
Depending on the payment method you choose, your payment information may be provided directly to the relevant payment provider.
We do not normally have access to your full payment card details.
Payment providers may process personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies and terms.
8. Who we share your information with
We may share personal information with trusted third parties where this is necessary to operate our website and provide our services.
These may include:
- Website hosting and infrastructure providers
- WooCommerce/WordPress service providers
- Payment providers
- MailerLite, for email marketing and mailing-list management
- Delivery and postal providers where necessary to fulfil an order
- Website security, backup and technical service providers
- Professional advisers such as accountants, legal advisers or insurers where necessary
- Government authorities, regulators or law-enforcement bodies where we are legally required to do so
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
Where we use service providers to process personal information on our behalf, we take appropriate steps to ensure that the information is handled securely and in accordance with applicable data protection law.
9. International transfers
Some of the organisations we use may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place where required by applicable data protection law.
These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, appropriate contractual safeguards or other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.
10. How long we keep your information
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including where necessary to meet legal, accounting or reporting requirements.
For example:
- Order and transaction information may need to be retained for a number of years to comply with accounting, tax and legal requirements.
- Mailing-list information will generally be retained until you unsubscribe, unless we have another lawful reason to retain it.
- Enquiry correspondence will normally be retained only for as long as necessary to deal with the enquiry and any related matters.
- Website and security logs may be retained for a limited period for security and operational purposes.
The precise retention period may vary depending on the type of information and the circumstances in which it was collected.
11. Cookies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies.
Cookies are small text files stored on your device which can allow a website to recognise your device and remember certain information.
We may use cookies that are necessary for the operation of the website, including functions associated with:
- Shopping baskets
- Checkout
- Customer accounts
- Website security
- Remembering preferences
- Other essential website functionality
We may also use non-essential cookies or similar technologies for purposes such as analytics, performance measurement or embedded content.
Where consent is required, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.
You can control cookies through your browser settings and, where available, our website's cookie-consent mechanism.
Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the website, including the online shop.
12. Third-party content and links
Our website may contain links to third-party websites and may include embedded content such as videos, audio players, social media content or other external services.
Third-party websites and services have their own privacy policies and terms. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites.
You should review the relevant third party's privacy information when you visit or interact with those services.
13. Social media
Our website may contain links to social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, X/Twitter and Bluesky.
If you choose to interact with these platforms, your activity may be processed by the relevant social media provider in accordance with its own privacy policy.
We do not control the information collected by those third parties.
14. Security
We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against accidental loss, unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.
However, no method of transmitting information over the internet or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
15. Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you may have a number of rights in relation to your personal information.
These may include the right to:
- Ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you
- Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
- Ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances
- Ask us to restrict how we process your information in certain circumstances
- Object to certain types of processing
- Request the transfer of certain information to another organisation
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
- Object to direct marketing
These rights are subject to certain legal conditions and exemptions.
To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details provided below:
web@worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk
We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request.
16. Direct marketing
If you have subscribed to receive marketing communications from us, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Every marketing email we send should include an unsubscribe option.
You can also contact us directly to ask us to stop sending marketing communications.
We will respect your request in accordance with applicable data protection and electronic marketing laws.
17. Children's information
Our website is not specifically directed at children and we do not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children for marketing purposes.
Where a child purchases a product or provides personal information through the website, the information will be handled in accordance with applicable data protection law.
18. Complaints
If you have concerns about how we have used your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to address your concerns.
You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator:
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Website: ico.org.uk
The ICO provides information about data protection rights and how to make a complaint.
19. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our website, services, legal requirements or the way we process personal information.
The latest version will always be published on this page.
Where appropriate, we will notify you of significant changes.
20. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal information, please contact:
The World Turned Upside Down/History West Midlands
Minerva Mill
Station Road
Alcester
B49 5ET
United Kingdom
Email: web@worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk
Last updated: September 2026