Shed offer enables community group workshop dream

The offer of a dilapidated shed has been welcomed with enthusiasm by a new community group that aims to help men feel less isolated.

While the former parish store in Trewoon, Cornwall is derelict, the St Austell Shed group see its potential as a dream home for the future.

St Mewan Parish Council has confirmed it will invest a part of £20,000 community funds from a nearby wind turbine development to make the shed weatherproof and reconnect it to mains services.

St Austell Shed hope to raise thousands to turn the structure into a bespoke workshop for community use, with trustee, Ralph Abbott describing it as a "fantastic opportunity".

St Austell Shed is the latest in a growing movement, with Men's Sheds groups already operating in Looe, St Just, Bude, Gorran Haven and Saltash, and on the Isles of Scilly.

The movement enables men to take on practical projects together in a shared space, with the aim of improving wellbeing and tackling male isolation.

The old parish store in the village of Trewoon, just west of St Austell, has not been used for many years and is boarded up, daubed in graffiti and surrounded by security fencing.

But for the trustees of St Austell Shed, it is exactly what they have been looking for.

Abbott said: "The local parish council - St Mewan - are putting a new roof on it for us, stripping the asbestos out, putting the mains drainage and water back on, and the electricity, and then it's over to us.

"We're looking to raise £45,000 to fit the workshop out, put new windows and doors in, raise the floor, electrics, benches, machinery, everything we need to run a workshop."

Fellow trustee Richard Hutton said: "The shedders themselves will be looking to make little projects, like bird boxes and things, and raise funds by the sale of bits and pieces like that."

Abbott added: "The idea is that we convert this into a workshop where men can work together, shoulder to shoulder, to connect, create and converse, every day of the week."

St Mewan Parish Council chairman, John Vine said St Austell Shed will pay a peppercorn rent of £5 per year and a special committee has been set up to handle the details.

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