Charlbury Community Workshop

Tuesdays         9.00 - 12.00 and
Thursdays         2.00 - 4.00

Soft crafts:

Wednesdays         10.00 - 12.00

About us

You will find Charlbury Community Workshop in a custom-designed building that sits between the Community Centre and the Surgery.  Fully operational since early 2024, the Workshop has been set up to give anyone and everyone a place where they can find help to improve their well-being through reducing loneliness and finding an alternative to social isolation.  It provides an affordable facility for repairing, making and training in a variety of practical crafts, in particular woodworking and soft crafts.  Open on prearranged mornings and afternoons each week, activities in the Workshop are supervised by coordinators who are experienced in the safe use of its equipment.

Run by a charity, the Workshop works on a membership basis, with the charity’s trustees being appointed each year by its members.  Open to both men and ladies, the Workshop is affiliated to the UK Mens’ Sheds Association, with which the charity shares its aims and objectives.

Aside from providing members with a place to undertake their own projects in a social environment, the Workshop enables people from Charlbury and the surrounding communities to bring in items for repair, rather than having to throw them away if they are broken.  We also run tool-sharpening sessions every so often.  Apart from those, and for other special events, we don’t have a fixed price list for repairing things; we just appreciate receiving a donation plus the cost of any materials we have to buy in specially.

Our history

The idea of opening a ‘Men’s Shed’ in Charlbury had been floating around for several years before the Workshop project took shape.  The Thomas Gifford Trust then helped to overcome the problem of finding a suitable venue for it by making available an unused plot of land at the end of the Community Centre’s sports hall.  With planning permission secured, a building was designed and ordered, and a team of volunteers prepared the site ready for its arrival.

With the building shell in place, a large group of project supporters gathered on 20th May 2023 to see television personality Suzie Fletcher perform the opening ceremony.  The rest of the year was spent in fitting out the building, now fully equipped with power and running water.  Since then, members have continued to make improvements, creating a weather-protected outside working area behind the Workshop, paving around it to improve accessibility, and building a wood-store for our materials.

Today, the Workshop has two separate work spaces, one for soft crafts (sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery and so on) and the other for woodworking and similar activities.  A key feature of both sections is that virtually all of our equipment and  materials have been donated through  local people’s generosity.

The Workshop has also been supported financially.  Grant and donation funding from The Glasgow Foundation, Oxfordshire County Council, the Town Council, Sustainable Charlbury, the Beer Festival, Blenheim, Wilderness and several individuals all helped to get the project through to completion, and able to pay its way.

Why are we here?

The Workshop provides a place for both men and women to pursue practical interests at leisure, to develop and practise skills, and to enjoy making and mending.  It fosters company and camaraderie, social connections and friendship building, as well as the opportunity to share skills and knowledge.

And our aims are based on solid research.  The UK Men’s Sheds Association (UKMSA) has found that a majority of people who attend a ‘shed’ such as ours regularly are less likely to be anxious or depressed.  Loneliness and social isolation also fall markedly, with the camaraderie found there being a great support.

According to the UKMSA, men typically find it more difficult to build social connections than women, and unlike women of a similar age, older men are less likely to have networks of friends, or to share their concerns about health and personal worries. ‘Sheds’ are about meeting like-minded people and having someone to share your worries with. They are about having fun, sharing skills and knowledge with like-minded people, and gaining a renewed sense of purpose and belonging.  As a by-product of all of that, they help reduce isolation and feelings of loneliness.

Supporting communities

As well as providing a place for people to get together, the Workshop supports our community in other ways as well.

If you need just a couple of screws (not a pack of 20 or 100), a short length of wood, or some yarn, come and see us.  We may well have just what you need.

We help prevent things going to waste.  We can take hand tools, power tools, gardening tools, all sorts of things.  If we can’t find a use for them ourselves, we pass them on to Tools With a Mission, who send them overseas to help build other peoples’ lives.

Find out more

As long as you can afford it, being a member costs £25 a year – we have rent, electricity and insurance bills to pay!  And if that is too much, come and see us; we can help.

To find out more about the Workshop, what we do and how to become a member:
•    Come and see us – our opening times are shown above; or
•    Have a look at our website:  https://www.charlburycommunityworkshop.org.uk; or
•    Email us at admin@charlburycommunityworkshop.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you!

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