There are some brilliantly memorable sketches from TV past, including the Two Ronnies show. Someone else did the dead parrot!
Giving some stick
Here is 3D Paul’s take on it for consideration by Daisy Chain next door. They want candelabra, one per table with twenty tables. Do the maths. Each needs four candles, LED lit.
Paul has used bought plastic conduit for the tubes but has 3D printed the central boss (5-way), the arm ends and the base.
He has sent Graham to the shop to buy four candles and a long weight.
Always happens to an apprentice.
Part of the fun is to make things economically and in a realistic period of time especially if they are not one offs.
Understanding who we are. What the collective Shed stands for. How we might help to build “community”
Below is the first of 6 parts that tries to explain the bigger picture of the Shed (any Shed really) which is much more than just what is seen and what in just done at a Shed session. It is useful for Shedders to think on, hopefully, but it is important for those outside the Shed (authorities, funders, partners and our community in Norton in the community of Stockton in the community of Teesside and beyond. We have connections with all.
They will appear on Norton Men’s Shed Facebook page and shared to Norton Village page.
Do you remember those serialised adverts on TV that told a story over several episodes? You followed the instalments to understand where it was all leading which of course was sales!
This is the first of a 6 part story about loneliness and isolation. The aim is indeed to sell. Not a thing, but an idea. Is that a teaser for episode 6?
Today, we start with a need. A need we all have, to feel we belong. To relate meaningfully to others. To matter to other people and for them to matter to us. Closest to us is family. Further out is community and at a national level it’s society. We want though to remain individuals , warts and all, because that is who we are; we do not want to be a number, a member of a herd!
The greatest problem we face in the developed world (including Norton) is isolation (my world shrinking in size) and loneliness (my feeling of no longer fitting in a world which is becoming unfamiliar).
Nearly 30% of the UK population say that they have feelings of loneliness often or some of the time, with the oldest and youngest adult age bands feeling so more acutely. It is said to be an epidemic. It seems like it. Only a fraction of lonely people go to the GP unless they are nearing a crisis level. A lot of the problem is masked and simply accepted by individuals which is a valid way to cope with a problem so widespread. It is, of course, a social problem rather than a health one but the consequences of the first have impact on the second. Simply, we need friendships.
This story is not really about Men’s Sheds although they are a useful illustration. Speak of a Shed and immediately the thought is of woodwork and DIY. Many will say that they aren’t inspired by that. However, what Norton Shed stands for is not the doing side (of woodwork or 3D printing, the new “woodwork”) but the being side of it. Being an individual, being noticed, being helped, helping others, belonging, rediscovering purpose that perhaps was lost after trauma or retirement. It’s the big FAMILY word. It is best summed up as mattering. Men (and a few women who have come too) mattering.
Of course, many other activities can bring people together, preferably for them to do rather than be done to. People matter when they have a stake in something and some responsibility for it. Norton Shed has a 2025 strategy (but ongoing) to get to know other groups, organisations and services embracing the equivalent of what we do – particularly on our patch of Norton and thereabouts.
They all do something (as we do) and whilst many do not say it on the tin of their activity, they have a similar underlying ethos to us. Thankfully, many flowers are allowed to grow and they need to with as much encouragement and some manure maybe (!) from the community as possible. Administrations and agencies are part of the community and as many already know because we often stress it, the GP Social Prescribing Link Workers have been instrumental in Norton Shed’s story since day 1.
We all serve the community (including our MPs and Councillors) and we all have a shared responsibility for the needs of that community. The challenge is to work out how best to arrange that by sharing the work out and jointly tackling any gaps in the community fabric.
We need more – more that is local to people, more variety, more people involvement. It was in fact the theme of a recent Stockton Council gathering concerning empowerment of people in the community to do for themselves more and with those around them. The Council clearly articulated their resource problem which is staff and finance. It’s the same for small organisations of which Norton Shed is one.
The next episode of this advert will start by considering the resource issues that confront us all in Norton, on Teesside and in the UK.
If anyone wants to talk privately about anything, it can be done. Particularly if it is about
thinking or working together on the challenge of reducing loneliness and isolation within our community.
Busy today on Locomotion 1 and a whole lot else
Brian making “welcome fence” artefacts as a subcontract to Ray
Squaring up to each other? Or discussing wood? Kev and Lollypop Pete
Printing off more Tom Judges with Fridge. See the stages.
Exploring in and About Norton. Looking for project frirnds
Today Paul and Graham visited Daisy Chain, neighbours of the Norton Sports complex across the tracks. It was quite an experience!
There are extensive facilities in the main building, which is sited on a former farm. That is where Daisy Chain started 22 years ago.
It’s almost a zoo. There are reptiles, alpacas, giant rabbits, tortoises, snakes as well as “normal” farm yard animals. Even some newborn guinea pigs.
Left of centre, Betty, one of the pigs. Right is Frankie who is not one of the pigs. Frankie was out tour guide. She is a fundraising guru. It was Frankie we were thee to see.
Petting barn
Horticulture
Paul trying to talk to the animals
Alpacas, two of them in fact.
It’s like the tropics; for reptiles, giant snails and tortoises. The animals all have names down at the farm. There is a corn snake called Kellogs.
Dave is the woodwork tutor at Daisy Chain. He with hopefully Frankie are coming to visit our Shed on a Tuesday morning soon. Told him to dress down for the visit!
We went not to see the facility but to meet the project. That means people. We saw a little of the sessions they do but from a distance. Not large groups of youngsters but essentially 1:1 with a “mentor” (our word). It was said that it is a matter of identifying the needs and approaches to them for each individual. That was one of the common features Paul and Graham identified between the two projects because that is what in essence the Shed does. Discovering the inside of people not just the exterior! Indeed that was what our visit was about as part of our simple strategy of discovering other (local) groups doing much the same as us – just different people being helped and different (appropriate) waysof doing it.
Just to recap how the visit came about. We knew Daisy Chain existed and we had a little bit of knowledge of what they did but we had not been there since it started 22 years ago. It was a place Graham visited (guessing) 20 years ago when the project was being set up using farm building on Calf Fallow. A woman’s drive to do something for children and their families because of her personal situation. Graham was in the South but visiting the North and heard her present her goal to a church congregation. She was driven by the needs and the goal. Very shortly (less than a month) Graham learned that she had suddenly died.
Behind solving problems that seem unsurmountable to large organisations is always 1, 2, 3 visionaries who roll up their sleaves to become overcomers and problem solvers. There are parallels here with the Sheds too. They grow because of compassion for each other not by “work”.
It was Daisy Chain who first contacted through Norton Sports Charity admin because they needed a storage shed. At the same time, Helen Deehan wanted one for the Orchard Garden community growing project too and we received the offer of a garden shed being dismantled. That shed is being collected this very evening!
However, as soon as we got back to Daisy Chain’s Frankie we learnt that they were to receive materials from Jewsons and Dave (see his photo above but don’t focus on his knees!) would work with others to construct what they needed. We were redundant before we even started. But no (!) Frankie (responsible for support raiding at DC) asked if we could help their mega Ball on Independence Day by proving 20 industrial looking multi-arm candelabra for use on tables. Paul turned his hand to 3D printing one as an example and that is what we took on the visit to discuss. They loved it but wanted them twice the height! Around three quarters of a metre high!! All proportions have to change and Paul has already been onto that.
More importantly, by meeting, spending some time and being very much “peer to peer” in exchanging views and discovering our personal drivers, there is we believe things that can be done to help each other.
It was a fabulous meeting and so worth while.
Made it to HANSARD!!
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
I echo the remarks of previous speakers; it has been a privilege to listen to the depth of personal and professional expertise expressed in this debate. I do not share that expertise, as I think will become abundantly obvious in a short moment.What do you get if you put a group of men in a room and ask them to talk about mental health? Half of them leave, and the other half run into the corners of the room. I do not know whether that rings true for the men in your life, Madam Deputy Speaker, but when I heard that, it reminded me of myself. I heard it from a chap called Graham in Norton in my constituency, rather than from Graham Norton. Graham has set up a men’s shed in Norton, which is a national scheme. It is a remarkable place where men can come together and talk about mental health, but they do so by engaging in other activities.
For those who have not been to one, a men’s shed is just like your shed—it has all the great things your shed has—but your mates are there as well. In the men’s shed in Norton, you can make model boats, or make things using the 3D printer, and it has the most amazing workshop, which includes a fantastic pillar drill. It made me think that I need a pillar drill for my workshop, to help my mental health. I met many men there; some were bereaved, some were suffering from serious or terminal illnesses, and others were feeling lonely. They gave me plenty of tea, and we had a really good chat—a really positive and uplifting chat—and there was a great deal of mickey-taking as well, which you always find when you get a group of men together.
That sort of facility is incredibly important for all the reasons we have heard about in discussions about men’s mental health. Not least among those, as we have heard a number of times this evening, is the fact that for men of my age, suicide is the most prevalent reason for death. We heard that from my hon. Friends the Members for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) and for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister). In my constituency of Stockton North, men wait more than three months over the national average for treatment for mental health conditions—as do women; in fact, everyone does. Some form of talking therapy would really help with many conditions, which is why I want to take a moment to talk a bit about psychotherapy.
My hon. Friend mentioned men’s sheds. I was delighted to visit the Kirkcaldy men’s shed in my constituency recently to see the amazing work that the people there do. Listening to this debate, I have been struck by the positive changes that this Bill will bring, and by the contrast with Scotland. The people I speak to from almost every local service raise the issue of the mental health crisis across Fife, be they from the NHS, charities or the police. NHS Fife has asked for funding from the Scottish Government to sort out our mental health crisis and was told to not even ask. That is such a contrast with where we are in this place, and I am sure my hon. Friend agrees that action needs to be taken in Scotland and in Fife.
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. It will not be very long before voters in Scotland have the opportunity to contrast the Scottish Government with what a Labour Government deliver, and hopefully they will chose the latter.I mentioned psychotherapy . . . . . GS Leaving out two paragraphs on psychotheray GS
As I say, half the men in a room will run out of it when mental health is mentioned. What is the answer to that? Graham gave me the answer: “Put a broken lawnmower in the middle of the floor. A big conversation will ensue, and two hours later, all the men will know each other’s names, and the names of each other’s families. They’ll have talked about how they are feeling and whether they are doing okay. You probably will not have a repaired lawnmower, but you will have lots of suggestions.” There is a good reason for that: men generally are not good speaking face to face, but they can speak shoulder to shoulder.