Men and Women in Sheds

28^th March 2024 Screveton Shed   Kev Bryant         

Kev started his presentation posing us three questions: ‘A tale of 3 Benches’ 1. Hardwood bench for Parish Council 2.  A Lottery funded Community project for 10 benches 3. Private request to save a church memorial bench. The questions to us were: Should they take it on? How to make them? And What should they charge? (their current costs are £200/month covering rent, insurance and utilities) He left that for us to ponder as he elaborated on Sheds in general, explaining that Sheds are a community base organisation to enable socialising, learning and collaboration. They started in Australia when it was recognised that once men in particular retired, they lost status and many friendships.  Perhaps hobbies they took on were personal and were OK for a couple of years, then a sense of isolation occurred. Age UK brought Men in Sheds to the UK some 20 odd years ago and today boast 1200 groups. Screveton Sheds was started by David Rose mainly to help his father Peter, who had suffered an injury and had to ‘retire’ from the farming. David bought an old Ferguson Tractor and set up the shed. For the first few years the shed looked after the tractor which needed some repairs, Kev joined the shed 5 years ago. Typically 6 to 8 blokes met up each Tuesday and Friday mornings, although most of the kit was ‘old and knackered’!, but they felt there was potential, but doing what? Then came ‘lockdown’, which created an empty shed.

Post Lockdown grants became available, which they applied for, enabling them to buy some new kit, which attracted new members and they then took on a commission: 1. With the Wildlife Trust to do with birdlife on farms, making Owl boxes, bird feeders and 2. With the Urban Worm Company (Anna moved to a barn on site and needed benches and insulated boxes for the worms.  So, they set up production lines under Kev’s guidance as ‘Shed Leader’, despite him knowing little about wood or metalwork, but it was more about people management. They needed to cover their costs, but felt it wasn’t a business, they were doing it for fun! Now there are 50 to 60 attendees each week. A big question for the shed is should they charge everyone the same? Businesses, community groups with funding and those without funding and private individuals, which he opened up for some interesting discussion. He wanted to make as ‘inclusive’ as possible, so opened up some evening sessions for those still at work and a ‘women in sheds’ session on Thursdays. There it is recognised that people like to work differently, on your own, pairs or teams and the work could vary: improving the shed, business /private commissions and community projects.

The benefits include social connections, skills development and mental well-being. Kev then took us back to the original question with the decision not to take on the hardwood bench, due to high material costs, the community bench project worked well with a standard design x ten, which also helped with the memorial bench, which was past restoration, but a new bench fitted with the original memorial plaque gave the satisfactory result.

They now turnover about £1k per month, have a healthy bank account and feel as though they are on the right track and happy to welcome new members, male of female.

Complimentary comments and questions flowed from our members and Twelly offered the vote of thanks saying that he found it absorbing and fascinating and thought that Screveton Shed was providing improved skills and a great social function, offering friendship and fun with members joining him with the enthusiastic round of applause.    AR