News

New Men in Sheds project receives £2k grant from the Byfleet United Charity

Posted on: 14 July 2020

The new Men in Sheds project being built on the new housing development along Parvis Road received a £2000 grant from the Byfleet United Charity.

Men in Sheds is a community space for men to connect, converse and create. Activities are often similar to those of garden sheds, but for groups of men to enjoy together. They help reduce loneliness and isolation, but most importantly, they’re fun.

A word from Kit Duffy, Chairman:

Woking & District Men’s Shed

The UK Men’s Shed movement started “Down Under” over ten years ago now. The concept is for guys to get together in sheds to engage in things like woodwork, metalwork, bicycle repair etc and to share skills and fellowship and above all have fun! It is particularly beneficial for those men who, for whatever reason, find themselves to be lonely or isolated.

Our “Shed” began back in July of 2017, setting up a base at what was then the I.S.L. School on East Hill, Woking (now Greenfield School). We quickly established a relationship with the school, helping the caretaker with maintenance and taking on projects with the students.

In Jan 2019 we were approached by UK Men’s Sheds, our national organisation (with some 600 member Sheds now) to see if we could assist with setting up a new Shed at West Hall in West Byfleet, the flag ship home for Anchor Care Homes. We accepted and finished up running the entire project and ultimately made this our new base.

We are a registered charity and have now raised around £30,000, some of which we have been lucky enough to receive from the Byfleet Unity Charity. With these funds we are now building a superb facility comprising two purpose made log cabins, with full electrics and heating within the grounds of West Hall. One is a workshop which is being fitted out with high quality woodworking machinery and some metal working equipment. We will use the BUC grant to help with this part of the project. The other cabin is a place to meet socially, watch TV, chat and just socialise.

But for the small matter of Covid, we would have been up and running by now but like the rest of the country, we have been set back. We remain hopeful of opening around springtime and will be looking for new guys to join us!

If this is of interest to you then you can get in touch through our email address: wadmshed@gmail.com

 

Kit Duffy

Chairman