Shed in the Spotlight: Biggar and District Men’s Shed

Towards the end of 2021, Biggar and District Men’s Shed moved to its new permanent location, at the former Walston Primary School, in Elsrickle. A few months into its new home, the Shed reflects on its journey so far and announces big plans for the future.

Richard Crosse from the Shed said: “Peter Brotherstone was the man responsible for getting the Men’s Shed in Biggar started whilst in his role as Beadle of Biggar Parish Church in the early months of 2018.

“He had seen many situations where men, whose wives had passed on, were at a loss as to what to do with themselves. He felt that most women, in a similar situation, handled the situation better than men as they found companionship with other women. Unfortunately, not all men open up to other men as easily.

“Initially, the meetings were mainly held in the Gillespie Centre in Biggar but some more suitable accommodation was found in Symington, sharing a corner of an industrial unit used by the Albion Foundation, leased from the Hometown Trust.

“Upon starting in Symington, it was amazing how much tools and equipment we acquired from donations. Initially, the members brought in tools that were surplus to their needs but once word spread about the Shed, the general public began making donations, including 16 surplus office chairs and surplus office desks.

“During the later part of 2018 and the early months of 2019, the search for more suitable premises continued. However, it became more focused, when the Hometown Foundation gave the Albion Foundation notice to quit the premises in Symington by the middle of May 2019. This meant that the Men’s Shed would also be required to vacate.

“The search for new premises went into top gear. Various locations were identified including the old Police Station in Biggar, and Loaningdale (a former outward bound centre). Thankfully James Cameron, who owned Loaningdale, was open to helping us and offered us the possibility of using two vacant adjoining semi-detached properties, which had previously been used as staff accommodation, to which we readily agreed.

“We moved to Loaningdale in Autumn 2019 and it took a bit of getting used to as it was completely different from the industrial unit we had just left. It did not have the large spaces that we had before and a lot of thought had to go into making best use of the space available. However, we all adapted and were eternally grateful to Loaningdale for allowing us to set up our Shed in these premises.

“We got involved in local events including The Biggar Agricultural Show and The Biggar Vintage Vehicle Show to promote the Shed and its activities and seek to increase our membership. We started 2020 with great ambition and ideas. Membership had grown to 30 and there were a number of interesting projects in the pipeline. These included working with the local Beavers to create a garden at the rear of the Legion Hall in Biggar and working with the nursery at Symington Primary School.

“Then, the pandemic hit and everything drew to a halt.  The Shed was unable to meet due to lockdown but we continued the search for a better and more permanent home.  After some long negotiations with South Lanarkshire Council and much hard work, we managed to secure a 10-year lease of the former Primary School at Walston.

“We have now been in our new premises for just over six months. So far, the woodwork shop is up and running and a ramp for disabled access is in place. We have also made a start on improving insulation and preliminary work has started on the garden area.  Membership is back up to 35 and the future looks bright.

“Before our takeover, the school building was unused for a considerable period of time and had deteriorated somewhat, becoming rather cold and damp. We have big plans to update and improve matters but this will take time.

“Heating the building with its current system is proving very challenging. However, we are getting through winter and our enthusiastic membership is working hard.

“Some of the projects in the pipeline include: installing new double glazing; upgrading to ECO heating; creating an allotment area, with polytunnel, for our green-fingered Shedders; finalising the woodworking area; and clearing the middle hall to create an arts and craft area.

“We are grateful to the many enterprises and individuals for their generous donations of tools, materials etc. and for the excellent support we are receiving from the community and are confident that we will be able to create a first-class facility that will benefit all in our surrounding communities.”

The Shed meets every Wednesday and Thursday, from 10am – 4pm—all visitors are very welcome. For more information, please contact info@biggarmensshed.uk or call 07471 491099. You can also visit their website and follow them on Facebook.

Shed in the Spotlight: Hawick Men’s Shed

Following over a year of closure, and the Trustees taking this time to refurbish their building for post-COVID recovery, Hawick Men’s Shed has now reopened and is ready to welcome new members. The SMSA chats to Shed Chairman Keith Torrington and Secretary Robert Mayhead to find out more.

Keith, who took up the post of Chairman just over a year ago, said: “As a committee, we made the decision during the pandemic to take this time to focus on making much-needed improvements to our Shed premises so that when the time came to re-open, we were better placed to welcome current members back through our doors and hopefully attract new ones.

“Founding members, including former Chairman Wilson George and former Secretary Derick Tait, were instrumental in the start-up and success of the Shed which began its journey at a workshop on Commercial Road before securing the current premises on Lothian Street through a 10-year lease from the Scottish Borders Council in 2016.

“Our Shed premises, a two-storey building and former mill and then used by the Council as Social Services offices, although structurally sound had been unoccupied for many years and required a lot of work to make it fit for purpose. A condition of the 10-year lease is that we cannot change the use of the building but we can carry out any necessary care and repair works in order to fulfil our activities.

“We are very fortunate to have so much space available to us. Following a reshuffle of our layout and a major tidy and clear out, downstairs, we now have a lobby/reception area and office to greet our members with an office and shop adjacent, two workshops, a tool store, wood store and cleaning-up area. Upstairs, there is a large meeting/social area, a small library, a jig-saw library, a second room/lounge, tea-making area and a full-size kitchen.  Pre-COVID, our lounge was a hive of activity where our members liked to socialise and have a cuppa. Also on the upper floor, we also have our upholstery workshop with another three rooms for the railway club that meets here. The Hawick & District Railway Society was founded in 1967 and their members are also members of the Shed.

“We have all worked so hard to improve the amazing space we have here. It is an old building that was in great need of an upgrade to make it safer and more comfortable for us to use.  One of our biggest projects was to make the building warmer including adding insulation to the roof/attic space and replacing the heating system. The building was suffering from severe heat loss with metal framed single-glazed windows and old storage heaters. We secured £8,147 from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) to install a new energy-efficient electric heating system; our new radiators went in just before Christmas and we are hoping this will make a huge difference to our energy bills and the comfort levels for members, especially in the winter months.

“For the heating upgrade, we applied to four different funders and advised the other funders when we were successful with the NLCF. Thankfully, the People’s Postcode Lottery had already committed to allocate the funds but this will now be put towards our double glazing. We are also hopeful about discussions with a third funder (The Riada Trust) to allow us to re-assign the funds towards the windows but at the time of writing, this has not yet been formally approved.

“We received a quote of £11,000 for new double-glazing panes for the inside of each window whilst retaining the original exterior single-glazed ones. We will save money by fitting these ourselves and have a local company on speed dial that is willing to support us with advice and guidance on how to do this if we encounter any problems.

“We approached Muirhall Energy (who are setting up a new Windfarm facility in Teviotdale), the officials there gave us a grant of £2,000 that enabled us to upgrade our old electric fuse boards, replace the old smoke alarms and install new fire extinguishers too – all ensuring that the safety of our members is of the utmost priority.

“Over time, we have also changed all of the lights to LED’s, thanks to a grant from Hawick Community Council, to make them more environmentally-friendly and this has also improved the light levels in the workshops immensely and will result in cost savings in the long-term. Solar panels are an item on our wish list that we would also like to explore down the line.

“A local man kindly donated a stair lift to our Shed which belonged to his mother. This was a very important project to us to ensure our upstairs offering was accessible to all. We paid for the uplift, adaptation and installation of the stair lift which in the long-term saved us thousands of pounds on the cost of a new one.

“Like all Sheds, the pandemic has severely restricted our activities. Since our inception, the Shed has always been so involved in many projects in the community including the refurbishment of café furniture for Johnsons of Elgin, recovering seating for the Camera Club, display racks for a local knitwear retailer, planters on the high street, planters for a veterans’ café and schools, wheelchair access to the high school and sign-writing classes for local young people to name but a few.

“Our Shed also attended the Hawick Fair and Hawick Christmas Fair in 2021. These events and activities were crucial to not only sell our wares but to raise awareness of the Shed and what it has to offer. We are looking forward to getting out there again and promoting our activities to potential new members.

“We are fortunate to have a great relationship with our local council. We receive referrals through them and have recently received two new ones and will invite them both along soon to have a tour of the facilities and see if it is for them.

“Currently, I would say that a third of our 60+ members are under the age of 60 and with our latest recruitment drive, we are hopeful to attract more younger members along to the Shed too. Future plans include the potential to add a chess group, cribbage group, board games, a music group for young people and also convert one of our workshops into a model making area. Discussions have also taken place with John Spiteri, Local Area Co-ordinator at Scottish Borders Council, regarding the potential for a new film group for young people with additional support needs.

“Pre-COVID, we also had plans to utilise our large kitchen and have some basic cooking lessons for members so this is definitely something we would like to get going with sooner rather than later. We have also previously discussed starting up a ‘Fruit Club’ to share growing tips and recipes for wine making, pies, jams and so on so there is no shortage of ideas on how we can expand our activities. These decisions will, of course, all be member-led to meet their needs.

“It has been a tough old year, getting the Shed ready for our return but what keeps us all going, and feeling so passionate about it all, is seeing the difference it makes to members’ lives. One of our founding members, Tam Dagg who unfortunately passed away in November, used to always say that following his early retirement after 38 years of working in the same job, that he felt lost until his daughter pointed him in the direction of the Shed.  After that, there was no stopping Tam coming to the Shed almost every day it was open – he was the first person to ever walk through the door five years ago – and he made sure to really maximise every opportunity available to him at the Shed and made a whole new circle of friends.”

Hawick Men’s Shed has reopened its doors Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm at 7 Lothian Street.  For more information, call 01450 219281 (voicemail for out of hours), email  hawick.shed@gmail.com and follow their journey on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Hawick-Mens-Shed-107009380774489