Allan Ogle recently visited Wingerworth Men’s Shed in the peak district

Chesterfield, North Derbyshire. Gateway to the incredible Peak District, home of the famous Crooked Spire, and a half decent lower league football team, but also home to four Men’s Sheds!

I was delighted to receive an invitation from Stewart to come and visit Wingerworth Men’s Shed who reached out following my appearance in the recent Shoulder 2 Shoulder newsletter.

I visited Wingerworth last in Autumn 2023 as I started with UKMSA. The Shed is based the other side of Chesterfield where I live and I gladly obliged to visit the team once again, this time a bit more knowledgeable about things compared to my first days!

Based inside two- and a-bit containers, the birth of the Shed is quite some story. Based on the land of a local Junior Football Club, the containers were ‘fit for scrap’ until a group got together and negotiated to restore the containers to turn in to a Men’s Shed. Some time and lots of tea drank later, there are now two containers that offer a superb workshop.

Committee member, Stuart, burst with pride as he shared that the majority of their kit and equipment had been donated from members and residents across the community. Part of the Shed tour included an impressive storage set up at the back of the Shed which houses spare wood and a recently built storage Shed for smaller items and a host of Birdboxes and other items fit for anyone’s cash at a local community event.

Back to the Junior Football Club, the Shed have developed a great partnership with them. They support the JFC with jobs and tasks and in return they get support with free rent and electricity to run the Shed. A prime example of a close-knit community sharing resources to support each other, it is wonderful to see.

Wingerworth face the same challenges as many Sheds, mainly capacity. Approaching 30 members it’s difficult to fit everyone in their workshop at once and currently run two sessions per week. There is ambition to fundraise for an additional container to double the space of one part of their workshop. These capital projects are never easy but I admire the ambition and back them all the way if they decide to pursue the project.

Short term solutions meanwhile included installing a gazebo outside where portable workbenches could be placed to utilise space on nicer days. And I was incredibly impressed with their Tea Room, which is the ‘and a bit’ part of the container set up.

I listened to a couple of Shedders share some stories and just before I left, I asked what’s next, Stewart pointed to a bench that had just been dropped off. It was over 20 years old and my frowned expression at the decrepit state it was in was enough to suggest; how on earth are you going to restore that? ‘We might just build them a new one’, he said.

Thank you to all the Shedders at Wingerworth for the wonderfully warm visit and good luck with your future projects and expansion plans.

Allan Ogle

Partnerships and Community Development Manager, UKMSA.