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Our Shed was nominated for the Bradford Metropolitan District Council ‘Service Excellence Award’ in early 2020!

The Lion’s Den Shed formed in June/July 2019 in Keighley, with the assistance of Andy Ryland from Community First Yorkshire whose remit is to assist with the start-up of new Sheds in the Yorkshire region.

We got a few donations, allowing a start date of 19 September 2019. We renovated the Koi Carp tanks and social area and applied for funding to get two containers for a workshop. We connected with local groups and the church, for which we had been doing a number of ‘community projects’, the largest of which was a full-size display of Soldier Silhouettes for Remembrance Day. Our local collaborations and projects must have got us noticed.

We were then told that the date for the award ceremony had been postponed due to Covid-19, and would be moved to October. A decision was taken to hold a ‘virtual’ award ceremony on 15 October.

In the meantime, we gained new members, ran courses, worked with schools, Scouts and community projects. Then the shutdown! Not to be deterred, we started a library of books/jigsaws/plastic kits, taking them to isolated members.

 The evening of the awards came and was live on YouTube. They got to the category ‘Partnership and Collaboration’, but with the more established competition, doing great things in Bradford, we felt that we had no chance. But we were proud to be nominated, then the presenter started to give clues as to the winner, which seemed to fit what we do… then… “The Winner is… The Lion’s Den!“. Gob-smacked is an understatement!

Thanks to our funders, sponsors, partners, members and trustees on Facebook, well over 6,000 are now aware of our Shed and the UK Shed movement.

We signed a new lease for 30% of an old chapel and gained funding grants towards refurbishment, plus amounts to help other local sheds.

We celebrated one year open on 19 September 2020. We have a great team and look forward to our official re-opening in November.

Allan Clark – The Lion’s Den Shed Cliffe Castle, Keighley. West Yorkshire

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