The Banstead Men’s Shed was formally opened on the 27th June by Sally Pulsford and the Mayor of Reigate and Banstead, Councillor Eddie Humphries.

The Mayor & Sally Pulsford formally opening the Shed

Nick Pulsford, Chairman of Age Concern Banstead opened the proceedings by explaining that the project was the result of his wife, Sally’s ambition to provide a place for men to meet and take part in community activities. She felt that Age Concern provided plenty of services for women and that the men in the area were being neglected. This was eight years ago.

Nick Pulsford talking to the Mayor & Mayoress

Age Concern decided that they would aim to launch a Men’s Shed, somewhere for men to meet, engage in practical activities and reduce loneliness , anxiety and depression.  The concept of Men’s Sheds started in Australia and there are now over 1,100 throughout the UK.

It took them four years to raise the money for the project and a further four years to resolve legal issues over the land for the project, behind the Age Concern garage at the Banstead Community Centre in The Horseshoe. But in February this year, the land was ready, and the shed arrived (in parts). It then involved 800 hours of volunteer work to put everything together and install all the tools and equipment needed.

Initially the Shed will be open for three sessions; Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Wednesday afternoon but more sessions  will be added when more volunteers are recruited.

The inside of the shed

To find out more about the Banstead Men’s Shed Click here.

As part of the overall project the shed will also be used for a Repair Café that will offer a free (donations welcome) repair service to residents. This will be open on the first Saturday in the month, the next date is Saturday 6th July, from 10.00am to 2.00 pm.

There are almost 1,000 Repair Cafes in the UK where teams of skilled community volunteers will advise and work with local residents to fix a wide range of their household stuff. The main purposes of Repair Cafés are to reduce the amount of waste we all create by throwing things away, and also to save people some money – no charge is made for repairs though they do ask for donations to cover their costs.

Repair skills have become scarce and are often more developed in older generations making Repair Cafés  great places for intergenerational skills transfer. Age Concern would be delighted to hear from anybody wanting to volunteer to help repair stuff, or to help host and run the repair sessions.

If you would like to use the services of the Repair Café please complete a booking form for the next session. Click here.

If you would like to consider volunteering or require further information you can email them at bansteadrepaircafe@gmail.com

You can follow the Banstead Repair Café on Facebook here.