Locomotion 1 continues its progress through the carriage works where some is ready for painting and the wheels are being forged.
Dennis extended the bed of the sliding chop saw ready for “jigging” wheel parts
Look how pleased he is.
Paper template and one cut rim component
The band saw with two hands and 10 fingers
Upcycling for the Orchard Community Garden
Our donor
Stripped down as necessary
De-nailing. There was another one man team doing that also
The allotment project spoke a couple of months ago about needing a toolshed. It has evolved but into something that happens to fit a garden shed offered by one of the members of Norton Squash Club. It had been disassembled a week ago but needed transport in large panels. It was then that a friend of Norton 1st Scouts came to mind. We had worked the Christmas before last on the Norton Shop Window Trail, frame making. Yes, the importance of making useful friends!
Accordingly on Wednesday evening the garden shed was collected and conveyed to the Shed. On Thursday morning Shedders were press ganged into stripping down (and de-nailing) several of them ready for reconfiguring to suit the needs of the growing fraternity. Some will be surplus to requirements and go into our wood store but two thirds will be needed to make the slimline tool and plant pots shed.
Episode 2 of the isolation and loneliness story
Episode 2 of the loneliness story. Look back for Episode 1 to make more sense of this!
When it comes to doing anything, it cannot be done on an empty tank. Inputs are needed that provide the energy for doing. In the case of the things we are considering (combatting loneliness and isolation) it means resources – primarily of people, premises and equipment (PPE!). But PPE costs!
In days of old when knights were bold and maidens were in distress, village communities provided for themselves because nobody else would or really could. Premises used were church buildings they funded through the offering plate. Entertainment was self-made, maypoles for dance on May day, ploughing competitions, harvest festivals, Christmas carolling. The older generation will recall the days before an entertainment industry and before it became packaged electronically – simple fun bringing kids, families and the community together.
Friends were people you knew well and depended on for help. Facebook Friends are not that unless individuals make the effort for voice conversation and to meet face-to-face. Norton Shed’s attempt to communicate via Facebook has, we are told, resulted in 96 following friends. Some have donated to us!
Facebook is a kind of parish pump newspaper with requests and adverts for services (can anyone recommend a good . . . . ?) and a role to police correctness when citizens are regarded to have breached acceptable behaviour!
However, technology presents a barrier for many in the older age bracket (often the most lonely), although that’s easing as generations pass on. Unfortunately, with that passing, we lose the community memory of how things were which can speak into the present. That will be visited in Episode 3.
Back to the main point of Episode 2. The modern way of providing PPE (to remind, People, Premises, Equipment) costs money. Money which has for a long time not been plentiful whether in the public purse of local councils and agency services or the pockets of many citizens.
Addressing wellbeing of people is a labour intensive activity. Particularly for those with severe health or mobility issues who cannot easily travel to centralised meetings and appointment. They need visits and that is time expensive for professionals. Rationing of visits, appointment durations, centralisation, new specialist roles to reduce the “bedside manner” load on GPs (Dr Finlay and Doc Martin?). It has meant big personal changes for some people to cope with, in a very short period of time and with more change to come!
Many people in work are time poor. UK wellbeing and happiness surveys show that the best of times are for those under 25 and over 65. That is before and after the stresses of work, the raising of a family and caring for aging parents impact the freedom to manage life rather than be managed by it! The over 90’s also suffer through losing the independence that has kept them going hitherto.
John Shipton started work at the Exeter branch of Waitrose at the age of 80 and is still working there aged 94 – with no firm plan to retire. He has been described as a “local legend” and a “national treasure”. Importantly he can still climb the stairs to the canteen!
John gets paid but really he works to “play with his customers”. That’s what the Shedders do too, though they don’t get paid! Nobody gets paid at the Shed which makes it very affordable. However, that is not really possible for projects requiring close supervision of attenders (i.e. care of some sort). Nevertheless in such projects there is often a strong base of volunteers.
One final point on people. Norton and wider Stockton and Teesside have retired or semi-retired residents with valuable experience of processes and problem solving from commerce, industry, healthcare, education and more. Maybe they might enjoy and benefit from lending some of their time and expertise to advising on wellbeing issues and possibly working on new ways of tackling them, given the digital technologies that might be brought to bear to assist. We are working on that with Whitby Sheds but we are not talking just Sheds here but projects generally. New volunteering opportunities?
Episode 3 will deal with the other two PPE elements (premises and equipment), the finance needed for the work of helping people and how the past might speak practically to the present.
The Way We Work
Lived experience
He who has made no mistakes has made nothing.
Charity Aid Foundation (CAF)
The 2025 report has just been piublished. https://www.cafonline.org/insights/research/uk-giving-report
The UK Giving 2025 Report tells the story of giving in 2024: Charities are now relying on donations from only 50% of people, down from 58% in 2019 — equivalent to approximately four million fewer donors.
- £15.4 billion was donated to charity last year. Despite continued financial uncertainty, the UK public donated an estimated £15.4 billion to charity in 2024.
- Health charities received the most in donations from the public. Donors gave an estimated £2.2 billion to health causes such as hospices and medical research charities, making this the most funded cause area in the research.
- An estimated 5.6 million people volunteered. One in 10 people said they volunteered in 2024, equivalent to around 5.6 million adults – a decline in volunteering of about 1.5 million since 2023.
There are some recommendations for charities.
- Charities and wider civil society organisations should set up and engage with local place-based giving schemes. The best schemes offer a clear vision for a place, set out a narrative that inspires donors, and can bring together people who want to make a difference to the place they care about.
- Local charities should look for opportunities for collaboration, joint-working and co-ordination to ensure that they can deliver the most impact in place.
- Local charities should consider including resilience or capacity building activity as a component of proposals to grantmakers, strengthening their ability to deliver greater impact in the long term.
- National charities should consider how they can support the most deprived communities, supporting local charities or engaging in models like fiscal sponsorship (providing financial, administrative and governance services on behalf of small organisations).
Interesting, because the 2nd and 3rd points are central to our 2025 strategy. To meet other local organisations (or branches of national ones) and look for opportunities to benefit each other and through that to leverage benefits for people.
Point 4 for national charities (we aren’t that!) is about the bigs guys helping the small guys. Not taking over, encouraging and facilitating ideas that can really only be carried at at the near grass root level. Professional helping the “amateur” who nevertheleess are in anchored in the local. Sjheds are that. The UK Men’s Sheds Association is a charity set up to help and encourage Sheds bvut it does not run them. Accordingly, there is a wonderful variation in Sheds and how they happen dependent on highly local circumstances – mainly the Shedders involved. UKMSA is there to facilitate and that is the same story that runs through the equivalent bodies in other countries, most notably the inventor Australia.
As best we can Norton Shed tries to strengthen Norton Men’s Shed and to promote the benefits of Men’s Sheds anywhere.
Being As One
This is the title of a project being scoped at Whitby Town Sheds “Tech Shed” branch. We and they are pooling our tech knowledge and hands-on experience to develop a communication infrastructure for Whitby district capable of providing “hybrid” engagement between those that can gather together to talk and make with those that cannot gather but cannot easily physically make together but could do it digitally.
There is a North Yorkshire Council (including York etc) initiative that is launched, the Digital Inclusion Programme. It is government funded but not earmarked for digital inclusion (we understand) and the themes for spending are determined locally.
Both Whitby and Norton Sheds have sufficient capabiloity technologically and even more importantly the experience ovewr nearly 10 years now of bringing men (and some women) together. We have to develop that experience because Sheds are more a concept (being together) than a prescibed activity (it “must” be woodwork). A good Shed evolves and embraces change as demographics change. As younger Shedders come there will be more experience of technology use than woodwork. BOTH are important for people to tackle new things, new to them. Know technology, then look at learning to turn a bowl on a lathe. We have a 78 year old used to metal who has taken keen interest in 3D printing and importantly 3D design. Anyuthing can be interesting, not just Locomotion 1 and a WW1 tank that driving gear is being worked on before the big envelope of a tank shape covers it for November’s Norton Sport’s Charity hosted Remembrance Service for children, young people and families.
Norton Shed will be mirroring what is done in Whitby in terms of core technology but will utilise “stuff of interest” that we aree interested in and have. The aim is to connect the rwo examples of “Being As One” so that we learn about coupling in other “stuff of interest” happening elsewhere. It will have a strong conversational component for those joining online too – so banter will be catered for.
Plus, Norton has commections overseas, so we intend to add a bit of interest on joint “specials”.
Our strap line is “Connectivity of people by connectivity of communication”. This is about people first and technology second in terms of outcomes.
We are looking forward to this and have already started on it in Norton with small scale experiments. It is not research, but applies known tools and methods to make a mix of things to suit people that can be tailored to suit place and context.
Friday morning was the “last of the sunny days” apparently
It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning when everybody (except Walter) was outside. Everyone was busy,. Further stripping the garden shed, handling a delivery of timber but the majority of effort was on Locomotion’s wheels.
Dennis started by teaching the rudiments of using a router to a couple of Shedders and then oversaw the cutting exercise. For H&S reasons but mainly because he wanted it dome right!
Routering a circle
A radial arm (like a school compass)
Walter brought in a book from 1905 to strengthen the spine. All about engines between 1845 and 1905.
Printed in Newcastle too.
