A Shed of Our Own
MEL STEEL
The Hastings & St Leonards Men’s Shed is at last the proud owner of the building that has been their precarious and drafty home for the past ten years – and they have big plans for it.
Known by many as Hastings & St Leonards’ very own Repair Shop, ‘The Shed’ has been a hub of the local community since it was first established next door to the Ore Community Centre in 2016. Its fully equipped wood and metal workshops are stocked with donated tools and machinery and provide a safe and friendly environment where local people – mainly, but not only, older men – who are isolated and disadvantaged can pursue craft and social activities. People with autism, learning difficulties and early-stage dementia can also find support here.
Entirely volunteer-run, The Shed provides a low-cost repair and manufacturing service to the local community and is a regular source of affordable bags of kindling. They use recycled materials wherever possible and often take second-hand items destined for landfill and restore them. They collaborate with Hastings Library of Things, swapping and sharing tools and other paraphernalia, and distribute unwanted tools to the charity Tools with a Mission, who in turn refurbish and distribute them to community projects in Africa.
They work closely with Ore in Bloom and recently collaborated with local community group Creative Concoctions to make planters that have been distributed and filled with blooms all over the town. Access to their workshops, tools and collective expertise costs just £3 per visit (and a one-off life membership of £10) and includes tea and coffee.
But in 2017 their landlord stopped letting them use the premises for free, and the rent alone has since made up two thirds of their total operating costs. With the cost of utilities also skyrocketing in recent years, the future of The Shed looked bleak.
Trustees, themselves all volunteers, hatched a long-term plan to purchase the building, figuring that if they owned it they wouldn’t need to carry on paying the crippling rent.Years of tenacious fundraising followed and by November last year they had finally raised enough to meet the valuation price of £90k. But at this point, the landlord refused their offer point blank and raised his asking price to £115k.
Determined not to be defeated at the last hurdle, they considered committing themselves to a 10-year mortgage. Then, out of the blue, local grant foundation the Magdalen and Lasher Trust approached them and suggested that they would consider a funding bid – and the Isabel Blackman Foundation stepped up to say they would match it. And so on 13 March this year they finally took possession of a run-down, uninsulated building with no heating and a corrugated asbestos roof.
Their plans now are to transform The Shed into a green, energy-efficient and sustainable property that will be a place of warmth and comfort for its 200 regular users. Clearly not having had enough of fundraising, they are now working towards an ambitious target which will enable them, in stages, to replace the roof and install solar panels; insulate the walls; install double-glazing, a heat pump and underfloor heating; and provide LED lighting, infra-red panel heaters and solar panel battery storage.
The plan is that the use of solar panels and battery storage will reduce their energy costs and improve their long-term independence and sustainability, so that they can continue to thrive.
In a town where the average life expectancy for men is five years shorter than in more affluent areas of the country – and a shocking 11 years shorter in the most socially deprived parts of town – the quiet impact and ambition of The Shed is inspiring and much-needed. “My dad has got a purpose again,” says the son of one Shed user. “You’ve given me my husband back,” says the wife of another.
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