A community workshop in Teddington – filled with more tools than you can count – is combatting loneliness with a simple idea: meet, make, and mend together.
The aptly named ‘Sheddington’ is found in the garden of St Mark’s Church and is home to around 65 members, who work on projects ranging from fixing broken kettles to advanced metalwork.
Sheddington is part of a network of 1,100 similar workshops in the UK, under the umbrella of Men’s Shed Association (UKMSA), designed to tackle social isolation in men of all ages.
Mark Aston, a retired chemist who is now Sheddington’s chair, said: “Particularly men can get a bit lonely when they get older, when they retire and wonder what to do, and just sit on the sofa watching TV.
“It’s good to be busy, men are not so good at offloading and talking about their problems.”
Despite being a member of UKMSA, Sheddington admits women members too, Aston says.
It counts former Top Gear presenter James May – who has visited the workshop for filming – among its patrons, as well as Twickenham MP Munira Wilson.
One of its members, property renovator Jon Fry, said: “18 months ago, I came to the conclusion that if my wife died I wouldn’t stay in Richmond, because I had no tie to the place.
“I needed something to keep me occupied, where I could meet new friends. And Sheddington has given me that.”
The project, formed in 2019, is a registered charity funded through grants from the National Lottery and Richmond council, whilst it also receives money from the NHS, Aston said.
The NHS refers people struggling with their mental health to Sheddington, under its social prescribing scheme, who then attend and decide whether the workshop is the right place for them, he continued.
According to Age UK, around 1 in 14 people aged 65 or over report being lonely, with 3% reporting they go an entire week without speaking to family or friends.
Sheddington is the offspring of a ‘men’s shed movement’, originating in Australia in the 1980s.
Stephen Aras, a GP who attends Sheddington, echoed the sentiment that kickstarted it: “Men don’t talk face to face, they talk shoulder to shoulder”.
Aras continued: “Working at a bench with someone who may not have opened up about something, can then lead them to talk.”
Comparing his double life as a doctor and craftsman, he said: “I have to work with my brain a lot, to then spend the day using my hands and on a different sort of intellectual work is really enjoyable.
“I’m learning new skills. There are people here with skills you’d have to employ a master craftsman to get.”
Ben Brooks, a cabinet maker, was working on a wooden rocking chair to be sold for charity.
He said: “I think for a lot of people they’re so focused on their career that when it comes to an end there’s a grieving process.
“It’s very easy to feel that other people’s lives run on rails, from the outside they lead happy normal lives but we’ve actually all experienced things that are difficult. Just knowing that is helpful.”
In a video on Sheddington’s website, James May wanders through its garden admiring what stands before him.
Not only is a workshop a place for mending things that are broken, he says, but they are for mending your soul, too.
Featured image credit: Jack Prentice
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