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