New study looks at impact of Men's Sheds in the UK

A new study is making an indepth examination of how Men's Sheds work for and in their local communities. The University of East Anglia (UEA) is collaborating with the UK Men’s Sheds Association. In particular, researchers are looking at measuring their impact not only on loneliness, mental health, and wellbeing, but also trying to understand how people are introduced to Men’s Sheds.

The UEA team is looking for the views and experiences of people who attend a Men’s Shed to help shape and support how they are developed further. If you'd like to take part, there are  two questionnaires with a range of questions about you, how you joined the Men’s Shed, and a series of questions about your wellbeing  and social relationships. You do not need to answer all the questions and no participants' information will be indentifiable. There is also an option to take part in online interviews which last around half an hour. At the end of the study, UEA  will  produce a report and video to share their findings. 

And when you finish a questionnaire, you will be entered into a prize draw with the chance of winning a  £50 or £25 voucher for a range of high street shops. If you also take part in the interviews, you will be also get a £15 voucher.

If you’re interested in being involved in any way, please email lead researcher Bryony Porter bryony.porter@uea.ac.uk

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Aluminium-clad garden office

This impressive garden office in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, designed by Studio Pond, is right next to a natural wildlife pond and has whopping windows looking out over it. The building is clad in folded aluminum and lined in birch plywood. It also features a large wall of translucent polycarbonate. And it can be yours since its parent building, Reed House, is on the market with The Modern House for a mere £1.8m.

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

 

The Sheppod

There's been a flurry of news stories recently about shepherds' huts so we were interested to come across the Wales-based Sheppod which the designers describe as taking "the aesthetics of a glamping pod and the practicalities of a Shepherd Hut to provide the best of both". Each Sheppod comes already built with all fittings and fixtures complete, so it is ready to go straight out of the box.  There are various designs and sizes but the one most shedworkers will be interested in is the Office model which measures 5.4m x 2.4m and comes with all the usual trimmings as well as a lavatory and sink, water heater, and mini kitchen with stove and fridge.

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The Guardian is having a shed moment

It must be micro-architecture month at The Guardian as they are spoiling us with plenty of shedlike news stories at the moment. Here's a story about the rise of the shepherd's hut (including a reference to the recent story about a sheep farmer missing out at auction to a Londoner keen to buy a doer-upper hut for a holiday home). Then there's a look at the demand for 'shoffices' including a chat with our friends at Smart. And finally, it's that time of year when all the media goes daffy for the price of beach huts, so no doubt they feel obliged to join in with 'Why the humble beach hut is the new des res'. All well worth a browse.

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John le Carré: shedworker-ish

John Le Carré was kind of a shedworker. The spy/novelist's former house in Upper Coxley, Somerset, which he bought in 1965, has just come onto the market with Strutt and Parker for £1.95 million. It is believed that he wrote his novels in what is called Studio Cottage in the grounds, a kind of superduper two-storey garden office with a bedroom, kitchen, dining room, separate lavatory, shower room and a private, part-walled garden.

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1.5 million Brits built an outhouse during lockdown

The Shedworking staff is always a little wary of statistics, so we were a little wary when we were contacted by field service management software specialist Powered Now's people with a raft of figures about home renovations during lockdown in Britain. These suggest that just under half the population took on some kind of building project during the pandemic and in particular our eyes were caught, understandably, by the section of the research which suggests that 1.5 million Brits had hired a tradesperson to build some form of shed-like structure.

We politely raised our eyebrows about the figure and were told: Powered Now commissioned nationally representative data, in accordance with the British Polling Council, investigating the projects Brits hired tradespeople for. Of the 2,069 adults sampled, 7% stated that they had indeed hired a tradesperson for the purposes of building an outhouse. We reached the population figure in the millions by using PAMCO industry recognised methodology as the source of quotas and population weighting for research insights." 

Ben Dyer, CEO of Powered Now, commented: "If you look to the hardware retailers that were allowed to remain open when other non-essential retail wasn't, they have performed so incredibly, further indicating the desire people have had for home improvements." 

So there you have it. A massive figure indeed. 

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Historic living van goes to auction

A chance to buy yourself a little bit of sheddish history when this Living Van comes up for sale at Charterhouse Auction Rooms on June 10. It dates back to the late 19th or early 20th century and was originally a roadman's living van, likely to have been made by one of the main living van manufacturers of the time Eddison & Co. It has a traditional plank construction and comes with cast metal wheels. As the auctioneers say: "Perfect patina, right down to the hobnail boot marks on the floor."

It's had a rollercoaster of a history including stints for a cricket club and in a garden centre. Most recently, it has been used by the shepherd's hut specialists Plankbridge. "The Living Van was our drawing office until recently," explains Richard Lee. " It has a really nice history, patina and potential. It's not a shepherd's hut but is equally historic and has potential as a home office."

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