Breadalbane Men’s Shed

A local NHS support worker canvassed the Aberfeldy area in 2015 for support to set up a Men’s Shed. Interested men met in a local café and decided to form a committee with a view to setting up Breadalbane Men’s Shed.

The men continued to meet in Rhinos Café during 2015, while looking for suitable premises – which proved quite difficult. They unfortunately had no luck finding somewhere through a community asset search but were offered the use of a large garden shed which became their first base towards the end of 2015. The members had a few woodworking tools, which were placed in the shed but not often used because when they were all gathered in the shed there was not much room! This was not a hindrance however as they would then spend time together chatting and putting the world to rights.

In 2016, the Shed became a constituted body, a SCIO, with a committee consisting of five people. They began planning to move to a bigger more functional building. Alongside this, they were carrying out small repairs and refurbishments of garden furniture for local people in exchange for donations.

In 2019, the Shed was offered the use of a piece of council land adjacent to a local care home, upon which to erect a wooden workshop. The rest of that year, and into 2020, the Shed raised funds and negotiated the planning system until they were in a position to purchase a 6m x 5m wooden workshop. This was erected in February 2020 and the members insulated the workshop and painted it inside and out as well as build two small storage sheds. The workshop was ready to use by the middle of April, just as COVID struck.

When able, the members returned to meeting regularly in their new workshop. Prior to COVID however, members were able to make use of a toilet, kitchen and meeting room in the adjacent care home but restrictions meant that they could no longer use these facilities. So, this Shed purchased a portable toilet and placed it in one of the storage sheds as temporary measure. It was obvious however, that they needed to have a social area with kitchen and toilet facilities so they got to planning and fundraising for this. They decided to construct the new extension themselves, only using contactors for the groundworks and water and electrical connections.

The planning process, fundraising and gaining a building warrant took from the beginning of 2021 to June 2023. Between June and Christmas of 2023, a core group of eight older men managed to erect the metal supports for the extension, put on a roof and cladding to provide a watertight building. Members insulated inside, fitted plaster board, skimmed and painted. The toilet and kitchen areas were plumbed and they then had a comfortable and welcoming space to be enjoyed by all members.

The Shed now has 15 members and are confident that this will increase in the near future.

Activities

• Members are able to make use of the comfortable and warm social area to meet and make cups of tea and snacks.
• The Shed has a close association with the Aberfeldy Repair Café and members can participate in repairs brought to it.
• Our workshop offers facilities for woodturning and all other types of woodwork. Members can work on personal projects or collaborate on fundraising work for the shed. There is, of course, no pressure on a member to do anything other than enjoy the company of his fellow shedders. Participation is voluntary.

Achievements

Without doubt the biggest achievement has been the building of our new extension. From inception to completion, this took two years and involved negotiating first the planning process and then obtaining a building warrant. Obtaining grants and fundraising ourselves took some time but was achieved.

The actual build was a huge learning curve. Although one member was very confident that he could do the plumbing work involved, none of the core group of eight, who worked on the build, had any previous experience of erecting metal buildings. They opted for a metal extension due to their proximity to the care home. Ensuring the safety of the build required a good deal of research.

The commitment and resilience shown by those doing the build were remarkable. We estimate that the build took some 2,000 hours of collective effort.

Challenges/Barriers

• Finding a suitable building to meet in was the first challenge. The members met this by exploring all possible avenues and seeking the help of local professionals working for the council and NHS.
• Keeping in contact with members during COVID was extremely challenging however the Shed utilised online tools and when it was possible enabled members to meet face to face while adhering to the current restrictions.
• Following COVID, we were unable to make use of the facilities in the care home adjacent to us. We met this challenge by building our own facilities.

Impact

• The Shed members are very keen to be contributing to their community. From the outset, they have offered repair and refurbishment services to local people. Many local people have been helped by this. Their services enable people who cannot afford to pay a tradesman or who cannot find one to carry out small tasks to get repairs done.
• A number of our members are involved with the Aberfeldy Repair Café.
• We are also involved in setting up a community tool library with a local community interest company. Four of our members recently attended a day long PAT testing course to enable them to offer the testing of power tools for the tool library. We also hope to offer this service more widely to individuals and organisations locally.
• We built a wooden shelter outside Aberfeldy Church to house fridges and donations of food to the community larder. This structure is open 24 hours a day to anyone in the community who needs to make use of it.
• We assembled a number of kitchen units for our local Dementia Friendly group, who were setting up a new meeting space in Aberfeldy Town Hall. This saved the group a significant amount of money.
• Being adjacent to a care home, we are keen to encourage any residents, who are interested and able, to make use of our facilities. At the grand opening of our new extension, one such resident had a look around the shed and we hope he will become a regular visitor.
• During COVID, the Shed joined forces with the local timebank to produce plastic visors. The members assembled over 300 visors at home from kits provided by the timebank.