Black Park Shed
From 18-22 March, the UK Mens Sheds Association mounted an exhibition within the ground floor lobby of Portcullis House, Westminster to help raise awareness among parliamentarians of the work and importance of the Men's Sheds movement. Black Park Shed was invited to modify a shed (donated by Wickes for the purpose) and to assemble it in Portcullis House and prepare it for display. Shed members and some UKMSA staff and other Shed's members were in attendence each day to provide information and to meet and greet MP's and other visitors. The following link gives some more information:
Thanks to a generous grant from Buckinghamshire Freemasons, the area in front of the workshop under the veranda has been paved. This will greatly facilitate the movement of heavy machinery stored in the workshop but used outside due to lack of space.
On 29th September 2017 a small group of potential members met in the Lakeside Room to discuss the formation af a Shed, to elect a management committee and to agree a constitution.
Black Park Shed has now been registered as a charity, Registered Charity Number 1198184.
Following the relaxation of lockdown rules, we have now been able to admit 6 new members and it is good to see the Shed getting busy once again.
With the revised guidelines and increased vaccination of members, we are now open for up to 12 on any day. New mambers will be admitted soon.
As a recognised support group the Shed will remain open during the Tier 4 restrictions. Full Covid-protection measures remain in place and a maximum attendance of 5 on any day.
The Shed has been granted an exemption from the coronavirus lockdown under the regulation permitting support groups to continue to function. Full covid security is in place in the Shed to protect the health of members and numbers attendingon any day are strictly controlled and places must be pre-booked.
The shed re-opened on Monday 6 July after a 3 month lock down. Attendance will be restricted for some time and a strict covid-secure protocol is in force. It really is great to be back in business and we will relax the restrictions gradually as circumstances allow.
Om Friday 1 November, Axminster kindly arranged a training session for four of our members. The photographs show the morning was a great success and our thanks to store manager Craig Townsley for organising it. (Photos by John Lisle).
On 14 October, the Shed was invited by Heart of Bucks, one of our major donors to a reception for their supporters. Along with two other organisations, Bucks Mind and Bucks County Museum we were asked to set up a stand displaying something of the work we do and to met those who had contributed to the Heart of bucks funds.
It was at Hall Barn in Beaconsfield, a large stately home and was attended by about 150 people.
We met a large number of guests who showed great interest n the Shed and at least we were able to spread the word about the Sheds and the work they do.
This shows our display table in the main hall. Below shows the audience listening to guest speakers.
Guests voted for one of the three organisations and unfortunately we did not win the jackpot of £1500 but we did get a runner-up cheque for £500 very kindly donated by td group.
From 1st October the Shed will be open on Tuesdays in addition to the existing Monday, Thursday and Friday.
Our Open Day on 6 July was a great success. It was an opportunity to invite friends and family to see what we get up to but also the thank people and organisations who have heped us with donations.
Sir Robert McAlpine who have been building the new studios at Pinewood hae been helping the local community which included Black Park Shed. They not only levelled and surfaced our car park and yard but have donated £1200 to pay for roof insulation of our Shed. (It can be extremely cold there in winter and is almost impossible to heat to a reasonable temperature). The cheque was handed over at a modest ceremony last Thursday. We are extremely grateful to mcAlpines for what they have done for us - it was very generous.
With increasing membership, it has been decided that from Monday 4th February, the Shed will be open on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays each week.
Our film night. courtesy of Pinewood Stidios, was a great success. raising over £600 for our funds. Wondeful pre-film eats were provided by Pinewood and the film itself, The Day of the Jackal, proved popular with the audience - despite its age it remained as exciting and relevant as ever. A big thank you to all involved.
Our first AGM was held on Thursday 4 October 2018. Minutes will be published on the web site in due course. The existing committee, Derek Hooper, Chairman, Les Stone, Treasurer and Clare Lawson Secretary were re-elected for a further term unopposed. In addition a fourth committe member Chas Russell was unanimously elected. Chas will be primarily concerned wth looking after activites and projects in the Shed.
The Shed has ended the year in a good state both in terms of its finances and its development. The construction work is almost complete and, thanks to grants received and donations, well equipped. Membership currently stands at 19 with a regular flow of enquiries.
The Chairman's and Treasurer's reports are on the web site - click Resources.
Our next film show to raise funds for the Shed by courtesy of Pinewood Studios will be on Thursday 8 November at 7.30pm (doors open 6.45) at Pinewood. The film is the award winning The Day of the Jackal directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox. Tickets £10.00 avaliable from Black Park Countryside Office & Committee Members (Les 07836 645286 or Clare 07968 700750).
A significant moment in the history of our Shed occurred when the three committee members signed the lease for the Shed last week. Although we have been given access up to now thrugh a Tenancy at Will, which has allowed us to carry on with the construction work and the electrical installatio, we now have the security and benefits of a full lease.
On 21 June members and guests were given a tour of Pinewood Film Studios. Everyone found it extremely interesting and it made a pleasant change form the sawing, hammering and painting. Our thanks to Kathryn Donovan of of Pinewood Group Community Liaison for arranging it and showing us round.
A condition of our tenancy is that a qualfied first aider be present whenever the Shed is open. We decided the best way to meet this was to arrange an in-house course for as many members as were able to attend. On 1 June, Rhian Lister of Orli Training came to give a one day Emergencies in the Work Place course to 10 members. I think everyone found the course interesting and useful - we just hope that the acquired skills are not needed. Certainly everyone enjoyed the lunch prepared for us by the Park's San Remo cafe. (More pictures in the Gallery)
We are delighted to have been given a grant of £4830 from Heart of Bucks to enable us to equip our Shed with benches, tools etc. When we have completed the refurbisment and modifications to our premises this grant will eable us to equip it with the tools and other items to make a fully functioning workshop.
A view of the new doorway. The palm trees are not a part of the final landscaping - they are awaiting deivery to Langley Park.
The installation involved removing a section of the old cladding, including a metal window frame, installing the door frame and rebuilding the stud work around it, before hanging the door and putting on the cladding.
(More pictures in the gallery)
Great news that we have had a grant approved of £1000 from the RVS/Asda Sheds Foundation. This is to help with phase 1 of our building project which involves cutting the opening in the outside wall and fitting double doors and also building partitions between our Shed and teh main sawmill. Work on this has already started.
On Friday 13th April we gained access to start work on our new Shed. It was a long, hard day and it was a magnificent effort by the whole team. We had to keep going until we had re-secured the building and narrowly avoided being locked in for the night!
We successfully cut the hole in the wall to take our new double doors, fitted the door frame and repiared the studwork. Before and after pictures are shown but there are lots more in the gallery.
Sally arranged a successful "get-together " lunch at the Luna Rossa on 9 April.
In January 2018 it was found that there were structural issues with the shed we had been given which would require very considerable work and materials to deal with. Black Park very generously came up with an alternative building - part of the old sawmill, which is well suited to our needs. A lot of work will still be needed to convert this into a self-contained workshop, but this is something that the members are eagerly anticipating.
We were extremely grateful to Pinewood Film Studios (which are next-door to Black Park) for giving us the use of their cinema. A showing of White Christmas resulted in selling 90 tickets and gave a very useful boost to our funds.
After the initial foundation meeting, the group of 10 members began to meet weekly. Initially it was not possible to carry out any structural work on the Shed until a lease had been signed and insurance was in place. However, an agreement had been reached with the Park San Remo cafe to refurbish their outside tables and benches and we therefore started work on that in order to begin raising funds.