PROJECTS

CURRENT PROJECTS

Every week our members are working on smaller projects, we have built just about every type of bird box and hedgehog house you can imagine! Another popular item that we have been enjoying is using scrap wood to make ‘shabby chic’ trays!

Projects vary and it’s great to see so many different ideas coming to life – we have recently made a shaving horse and pole lathe as used by woodland workers before electricity! We are also refurbishing a Windsor chair, making picture frames, park benches, a butchers block and even some exciting lathe projects.

Our new CMC cutter has proved to be a great addition to our kit thanks to the very generous donations that we have recently received. The kit from Ooznest was assembled in house by our members and is now found to be in use during almost every session.

So far we’ve used the CNC for various items such as house signs, football team logos and even an oak memorial dedicated to 25 chickens!

Lathe turning

Our lathes have been very popular with members and all of the lathes are in constant use during our sessions – bowls seem to be the most popular item to make at the moment, but we have seen items from pens and Christmas trees being created!

Supporting other charities

As a charity, we understand the importance of supporting other charities and appeals. Together with our members we have been collecting for Ukraine, Turkey and sending tools to Africa. It’s a small contribution but one that we see as vitally important to play our part.

Sausage Saturdays

Our monthly ‘Sausage Saturday’ happens on the first Saturday of every month for our members to enjoy after their morning Shed activities. Our BBQ has become popular with everybody and to date we have raised over £4,000 to Prostate & Pancreatic Cancer charities. This would not be possible without the generous support of The Dorking Butchery, who kindly donate all of the meat for these BBQs. We are really proud of our partnership with The Dorking Butchery and the contribution that we are able to make to such important charities.

2022

Beehive

Allen’s Hive – we made this hive exclusively from pallets. This project was started in 2022 and is now finished and in place ready for the new season. The old section of the hive never went to waste and went on to be used as shaker style crates as part of another project.

Dorking Planters

Our planters sited in the town bearing crowns to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee. These planters were on display throughout the town and are currently being prepared ready for the summer season – they will be back out in the town to celebrate the Kings Coronation.

Local School

We love being able to help out local schools with the ambition of one day inspiring them with tools and practical knowledge. To date we have produced a number of items for the local schools, including a Christmas post box for the pupils to post their letters, a tipi for their playground and tables and chairs. We’ve also donated the Mayflower planters that were sited throughout the town, to schools to enjoy within their playgrounds.

2021

Memorial bench

Dorking Men’s Shed were asked to create a solid oak memorial bench as a celebration of the life of a local Scout Master. We made this bench from solid oak sleepers and angled the seat inwards for comfort of the weary walker! Look out for it on your next visit to Denbies.

Mayflower

To commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower to America, Dorking Men’s Shed were asked to produce six galleons to act as planters in Dorking. Together we spent many hours designing and building these planters which stood proudly throughout the town.

After the initial build, each boat was painted in the NHS blue as an acknowledgement of all the hard work our local NHS staff have been doing during these difficult times. The six boats were named after the six Dorking residents who travelled on the Mayflower; William, Alice, Priscilla, Joseph, Robert, and Peter.

The planters were a huge success and our work here contributed towards Dorking being Awarded the Gold Medal for ‘Dorking in Bloom’.

Having only set out to create planters for one season, all six of the Mayflower gallions were returned after two consecutive years, and have since been gifted to local schools in the community to see out their final days.

Dorking Museum

As well as our work on producing the galleon planters, we were also asked to produce a scaled cross section through the hull of the Mayflower for Dorking Museum.  This was an intricate project which involved hours of advance planning. Everything was made in house from recycled materials, from its superstructure to the rigging, and even the figure of William Mullins and the seagull in the Crows Nest! This was a huge team effort from our members and it was fantastic to see so many different skillsets working in together.

The replica model is now proudly on display as the centrepiece of the exhibition in the Dorking Museum, where it will remain on permanent display until the exhibition closes.

Hazel Dormouse

In [spring 2022?] were asked by West Horsley Place Trust to create nesting boxes to assist with the planned improvements to habitats for the Hazel Dormouse – a species which we know to be endangered. The boxes are used to encourage summer breeding, and since the boxes have been finished and placed in situ – many other mammals are now benefitting from their careful management by ecology experts. We are really pleased to have been involved in this project and look forward to further partnership in the programme.

Swift Boxes

As part of our support to the Manda Slater Memorial fund, we created 60 nesting boxes for the swifts that visit Dorking each summer. Manda was passionate about Dorking’s swifts and co-founded Dorking Swift Conservation with her friend and neighbour, Julia Hemsley. For these boxes we created two different designs, which were then branded with the Manda logo. The boxes have since been put up on people’s homes in and around Dorking, and we are now looking forward to enjoying greater swift colonies on our doorstep!

2020

Christmas sleighs

One of our first projects that was recognised throughout Dorking High Street was six santa sleighs which we designed, built and painted as Christmas planters for the town. These sleighs have been hugely popular in the local community and sited around the town for the last four years (and still going strong)!

Due to the popularity of these sleighs, our members then produced a number of small sleighs for doorstep decorations, which were sold on the run up to Christmas to raise funds for The Shed.