Over 40 people attended a public meeting in Burnham-On-Sea this week to mark the launch of a new shedders group.
Thursday’s meeting in the town council chambers gave locals a chance to meet with exisiting local shedders and hear about the aims.
The group pools together a group of shedders who will share tools and resources to undertake practical, hands-on projects in a friendly, inclusive environment.
“We are delighted at the turnout and the enthusiasm from this new group – there were plenty of great ideas and community projects suggested,” Sedgemoor District Council’s Health and Wellbeing Officer, Jacqui Strong, told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
“These include building bird boxes for Apex Park, wooden tables, and repairing equipment such as lawn mowers as well as some bigger projects.”
“We had lots of people keen to be involved from Burnham-On-Sea, Highbridge, the surrounding villages including East Huntspill and West Huntspill, plus Bridgwater.”
Patrick Abrahams from Frome Men’s Shed gave a presentation about how the initiative already works well in his town.
Jacqui added: “A Men’s Shed is a larger version of the typical man’s shed in the garden – a place where he feels at home and pursues practical interests with a high degree of autonomy.”
“They are places of skill-sharing and informal learning, of individual pursuits and community projects, of purpose, achievement and social interaction.
“A place of leisure where men come together to work.”
“A shed’s activities usually involve making or mending in wood (e.g. carpentry, joinery, turning, carving, whittling, marquetry, furniture renovation) but may include metalworking (milling, sheet metal, welding, etc.) bike repair, gardening, electronics, tool renovation, boat renovation, model engineering (model railways, planes) and even building a car. Reclamation, reuse and restoration will feature.”
“The benefit will be to individuals and communities, from the social interaction to skill sharing, from community projects to personal projects – there is no specific way in which a shed has to berun, it is up to each shed to develop and flourish.”
The next meeting of the new group takes place on Thursday March 9th from 7pm-9pm at The Old Courthouse in Jaycroft Road, Burnham when all will be welcome.
Pictured above: Village agent Steve Ballinger, Patrick Abrahams from Frome Men’s Shed, William Salmon from the Somerset Levels and Moors Shed, and Jacqui Strong from Sedgemoor District Council
