When Eric and his friend were looking to start a men’s shed locally, they teamed up with a group from St Leonards Church to form the Oakley Men’s Shed; and the rest is history.
Starting life back in May 2018, the idea behind the men’s shed was to provide a place of support for men in the area to combat loneliness and isolation in a safe and local environment, as well as provide a workshop for those who want to pursue hobbies or might be missing the hands-on aspect of working life.
Speaking to us about the men’s shed Eric explained: “A lot of men with us were real manual workers, they worked 6 days a week, 12-hour days; they came home, had dinner and left the next morning for work, once they retire, they think it’s great but after six months or so it can be incredibly boring, with too much time on their hands.
“We want to get the inclusion back after a busy life and retirement, what they want is to go back to where they came from. They think they are going to be useless here, but I talk to them and let them know they can sit and socialise, you don’t have to make anything you can just talk to everyone else.
“We have 24 members, usually around 10-11 turn up every week. It’s similar to work and the closest thing to where they came from, especially if it’s hands on. We meet Monday and Thursday morning 10am-1pm at the Oakley Scout and Guide Centre, we hire the hall and the beauty of that is because we are there, we can do a lot of repairs to their building.”
Over the years the Men’s Shed has helped with numerous projects in the village through the Parish Council, from repairing an old telephone box for a book library, renewing ducks’ houses on the pond, renovating signboard and noticeboards, to making over 20 wooden reindeer for the Christmas village fair; these are just a handful of the many projects the shed has taken under their wing.
Eric added: “The difficult part is actually getting men to come to a men’s shed. When we all get talking you realise, we are all roughly in the same boat and have things in common from the past.
“Men are like that, we are quite isolated in our thoughts, outside of the pub it’s difficult to get men to socialise with people they don’t know. We want to get the inclusion back after a busy life and retirement and people don’t repair things anymore, watching some of our members work and what they can do is absolutely amazing.”