Update 23 December 2022

Boy, we’ve been busy! 

We took possession of 16 Heath Road, Petersfield in October, the premises consisting of a house, 2 large garden sheds and grounds. Since then, we have: 

  • Sorted the bigger shed with new windows and door, removed partition walls, made good, decorated, and are now running new electrics, lighting, and installing work benches and major equipment to create our woodworking shed. 
  • Upstairs in the house, we have cleaned and re-laid all the carpet tiles found in the sheds to the bedrooms and landing and have re-purposed donated office furniture and desks (mostly from Swan Medical Group) to create our IT Suite, Electronics Suite, and a Shed Office.  
  • Downstairs in the house, we have created a Social Room (again with donated chairs and lots of woodworking magazines for inspiration), the kitchen is almost sorted with a donated cooker and many utensils, and we now hold a Social every Friday morning; do please come along. 
  • Our signage is all up including an amazing oak sign made by member John. You may notice we have named the Shed after one of the founder members John Ide, who sadly passed before seeing our efforts come to fruition. 
  • The grounds have received an initial tidy ready for a garden group to take over next Spring. Who knows, we could grow our own veg and entering garden competitions?! 
  • We have yet to start work on the smaller shed as this has been predominately used to store the many donations of equipment, we have received for which we thank each and every one. Our plan is to create a metal work room here, more news later. 
  • The management committee has changed and grown: 
    • Michael Cowen has taken over from John Liddall for Membership, (thanks to John for his past efforts), 
    • Mike Bookham has taken over from Simon Brown for IT, (again our thanks to Simon for his past efforts), 
    • Malcolm Wigmore has joined for Donations and Sponsorships, 
    • Peter Reeves joined and has led the woodworking shed development, 
    • Martin How joined and will lead a team of Key Holders who will gradually increase our opening days, again watch this space, 
    • We are still looking for someone to take over as Secretary from Neil Slatter. 
  • Membership to Petersfield Men’s Shed is now fully open so do please take a look at us and we hope to welcome you as a new member soon: a membership form can be found at www.petersfieldmensshed.org.uk.

As you can see, busy, busy! 

Progress has been amazing, all thanks to the many volunteer members giving their hands, expertise, skills, and time.  

We are now starting to plan a proper launch of the Shed, inviting all those who have helped us along the way, local dignitaries, and hopefully John Ide’s widow Patricia to cut the ribbon and officially open us. We are aiming at late January/ early February so again keep watching. 

Lastly, I wish everyone involved or connected to Petersfield Men’s Shed and their families, a very merry Christmas and Happy 2023. 

Steven Watts
Chairman

Regular Social

EVERY FRIDAY – 10AM TILL NOON
16 HEATH ROAD, PETERSFIELD

ALL MEMBERS & ANYONE INTERESTED
IN JOINING WELCOME

TEA, COFFEE, BISCUITS & A CHAT
COME & SEE THE DEVELOPMENTS
& PLANNED ACTIVITIES

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE

Update 26 October 2022

Following the excellent news that we have now signed the licence with EHDC for our new premises, 16 Heath Road, I wanted to update everyone what happens now.

What are we doing?

  • We have formed various working groups to complete the early development needs for each area of the premises. This includes,
    • deciding what activity each area will initially be used for,
    • securing the whole site and buildings,
    • replacing missing windows and doors,
    • clearing the grounds,
    • sorting the electrics,
    • preparing budgets for future expenditure.
  • We are developing a site management team for key holding, security, and safety in order to schedule when the shed can be open to membership.
  • We have created a team to seek out and sort any future tool and equipment donations and grants.

Future membership

Through the recent articles in the Petersfield Post and Shine Radio and via our Facebook page, we have received many new expressions of interest to join us, which is excellent. We aim to complete the initial development of the site by the end of November/ beginning of December and then will be in a position to accept new members and at least offer the social aspects of the Shed. So please bear with us. You can register interest and find a membership form here.

Tools/ equipment donations

We have also received many offers of donations for which we are very grateful. Please keep them coming and we shall arrange to look at any offers once the site is secure and as space for storing is completed. Email any offers to [email protected].

Management Committee

The existing management committee mostly consists of members who have served now since the Shed’s inception. As we evolve, grow and for succession planning, we are interested to hear from members who would like to join the team. Current specific roles that we are looking to replace is Secretary, Membership, and IT. If you are interested, please contact me directly at [email protected].

Open Day

In November, we plan to have an Open Day at the Shed, 16 Heath Road, where anyone interested in joining our membership can come and look at the premises, see what activities we plan, and to meet existing members and members of the management committee. Date to be advised.

We are very excited about the prospects offered by the new site to our Shed and we will all work hard to finalise the initial developments as soon as possible in order to start Shed activities and welcome many new members.

Steven Watts
Chairman

Petersfield Men’s Shed Signs Licence

The Petersfield Men’s Shed, a local charity for men (and women) of Petersfield to socialise together whilst fulfilling practical projects to benefit the local community, has signed a licence with the East Hampshire District Council to occupy its first premises at 16 Heath Road, Petersfield.

Consisting of a house, two large sheds and grounds, located in the Festival Hall car park in the town centre, 16 Heath Road provides the perfect mix of accommodation to enable a good range of projects such as woodworking, metal working, IT skills, gardening, bike maintenance and cookery as well as being a perfectly located drop-in centre for simply socialising.

Currently the 27 strong membership is forming working groups to prepare the site for occupation which we hope will be ready to accept more members by December; if you are interested in joining please look here. Membership is just £50 per year.

The Shed will be named The John Ide Shed in memory of one of our founders, John Ide, who sadly passed before seeing his passion for a men’s shed in Petersfield come to fruition.

Our thanks go to the Councillors at East Hampshire District Council who also financially supported this development through local grants. However, from now on we must support ourselves through increased membership, local projects, local business sponsorship and donations.

After over two years of formulating plans for a Petersfield Men’s Shed, we are delighted to now have purpose premises from which The Shed can start to fulfil its charitable objectives to benefit both men and women of Petersfield and the local community.

Steven Watts
Chairman

Update – 20th August 2022

It’s been a while since the Men’s Shed last met, but the management team have simply been busy trying to sort premises and it is taking longer than we hoped. However, now we have news and think/ hope it’s very good news!

As you are aware, we have been negotiating with East Hampshire District Council regarding the possibility of us taking on 16 Heath Road, Petersfield as our first Shed. The good news is we have a draft licence from the Council which the management team has reviewed, discussed and with a few minor amendments is happy to agree. The licence offers us the whole premises including the two sheds, all the gardens and grounds and the house itself.

In connection with the licence negotiations, the management team has also progressed a grant application to the Council for funds to make the sheds, grounds, and house secure with new locks, door, and windows, and safely powered with electrics.

On the assumption that a licence is signed, and we gain the necessary grant funding, the hard work to become operational begins now which will involve every member. This will include;

  • Identify a team of member key holders and safety officers to “manage” the site whist members are on-site.
  • Identify a tools manager.
  • Agreeing the designation of all areas/ buildings/ rooms for our various activities, this may be in stages and change over time.
  • Establishing what work needs doing and its priorities.
  • Creating working parties to carry out the work based on everyone’s individual skills.
  • Establish, agree, and purchase the initial tools/ equipment/ benching to get started.
  • Agree our “Shed Open” annual membership fee.
  • Investigate commercial sponsorship and local donations for on-going funds/ tools/ equipment/ wood/ anything useful.
  • Promote the Shed membership to increase numbers.
  • Finalise the operational budget.

Knowing how long final negotiations can take, we propose a whole Membership Meeting on Wednesday 5th October at 2pm either at 16 Heath Road or either the Townhouse on the High Street or the Half Moon pub in Sheet (to be confirmed later). The purpose of this meeting will be to provide further updates and to discuss, agree and confirm volunteers to work on and complete the elements above. I urge you to make every effort to attend this meeting and also start to consider how you can best support some of the actions above.

We have been working for this for over two years and finally, it may well happen. This is our Shed, jointly we can make it the best Shed.

Thank you.

Steven Watts
Chairman