Blyth Man Shed

To be in with a chance of owning this year’s Blyth Man Shed Christmas Tree we are inviting local people & organisations who are interested to submit a blind bid to purchase the tree.

This year’s build is made of plywood for the main part of the tree and wood offcuts have been used for all the Christmas decorations which have been carefully made by hand from a range of natural woods, including oak, pine, and the odd tropical piece.

How it works

We want to give everyone interested in owning our Christmas Tree a fair chance to do so. A BLIND AUCTION is the fairest way we can achieve this.

To submit a bid, simply pop a letter in the post (sorry, no texts or emails bids accepted). Please include your full name, organisation name, full address, and best contact phone number. And don’t forget to include how much you are prepared to pay for the Christmas Tree.

Your bid is for the tree only, decorations are for display purposes only and are not included. The last day for postal bids is the 23^rd of December 2022 at 5 pm.

Send your blind bid letter to us at:

Blyth Man Shed

Christmas Tree Auction 2022

C/O The Quay Pub

67 Bridge Street

Blyth

Northumberland

NE24 2AP

The lucky winner

• We will announce the winner on Saturday 24^th December 2022, contacting the successful bidder directly by telephone.
• The tree will be available for local delivery or collection directly from Blyth Man Shed in early January 2023.

You can see the Blyth Man Shed “Tree with a Twist” and all the other trees currently on display as part of the Christmas Tree Festival between 5th -10th December.

St Cuthberts Church

Plessy Road

Blyth

Northumberland

NE24 3BE

Good luck with your bid!

Have a very merry Christmas from us all at Blyth Man Shed!

All aboard! Shedders from Blyth Man Shed have been right on track recently with the STEM Lab on Wheels project at the Dales School in Blyth, the school is a specialist primary school providing Special Educational Needs for children. Blyth Man Shed is proud to be involved with this amazing project by building a Ticket Office & Platform Waiting Room area which is designed to engage children in sensory role play & inspire generations of children giving them a better future.

Read on to find out more…

The Dales School staff approached Blyth Man Shed in May 2022 requesting assistance with the build of a Train Station Masters Ticket Office to allow the children to engage in role play learning, which of course we agreed to without hesitation, even without knowing the scale of the project!

Shedders visited the Dales School Station platform late June to start planning & designing the Ticket Office. Seeing the two full size train carriages in person really put into perspective the size of the project and understanding the benefits to the children from the renovation works being carried was truly inspiring. This gave shedders a one-track mind thinking about the ticket office designs, planning and building requirements based on the available volunteer in-house joinery skills shedders can offer.

In the meantime, Blyth Man Shed pulled the stops out, and successfully managed to engage on a journey with Wickes, a well-known building supplier. Wickes management team from the local store in Wallsend visited & agreed to help by supplying a brand-new shed and materials towards the train project, or something along those lines…

In August, Wickes delivered the new shed right on time to the Dales Schools Station Platform ready for install by the Blyth Man Shed team.

On the day of the big build, volunteer shedders gathered at the shed early doors to gather tools & grab boxes of screws, just in case! The whole team rendezvoused up at the Dales School to start the shed construction. The Wickes team also attended to offer support on the day to ensure everything went along smoothly and nobody lost their train of thought.

The Blyth Man Shed team of four shedders prepared with impact drivers, electric drills, and pockets full of screws the team of shedders managed to complete the shed build in one day, including felting the roof, adding the weather strips & hanging bi-fold doors.

While building the ticket office a camera crew from Channel 4 filmed shedders as construction was taking place for some action shots which will hopefully be used on a new series coming soon.

Next stop is for the shed modifications to incorporate a working ticket office window & waiting room area for the children to role play, preparing & handing out train tickets before heading to the Dales School Platform to get onboard the train.

This is not the end of the line just yet, Blyth Man Shed will always have a connection with this project and we cannot wait to see the final stop when all the works have been completed and the children can start to enjoy & benefit from this truly amazing space.

Follow progress on the Train Blog –

https://www.thedales.northumberland.sch.uk/category/train-blog/

It’s been a strange and testing year for us all and no less so at the shed. Whilst lockdown has been a staple for the majority of us in 2020. It has allowed a few of us to channel newfound spare time into getting the shed turned around and ready for the growing list of people interested in becoming Shedders with us.

Here is a brief update on our shed activities so far this year.

Yard and woodstore – Our yard space has been completely cleared & tidied and we now have a purpose built woodstore. When Springtime arrives next year, we plan to introduce raised planting beds across the yard ready for keen gardening Shedders to sow some magic.

Security – For those eagle eyed among you, you may have noticed a new yard gate. That’s one of the two we’ve had specially made and installed. The shed now also benefits from LED lighting, CCTV and an alarm system, meaning we now have a safe and fully secure premises for Shedders.

Indoors – Workbenches have been fitted, a toilet and small refreshment making area has also been built. And we’ll soon to be putting the finishing touches on a completely brand new professionally installed electrical system.

Environmental & Sustainability – Were extremely proud of our achievements with all things environmental & sustainable and initiatives used in the shed so far include. The repurposing of roof insulation which has allowed us to fully insulate the internal space of the shed.

Our rainwater harvesting project is now in place and running, allowing us to remain off grid for all our water needs both indoors and outside for the planned gardening area.

Solar energy capture and storage – We have installed equipment which now allows us to generate and store energy from the sun. The power we generate and store is already being used to keep all our hand power tools fully charged and ready for use.

Logs & Kindling Sales

You can now buy seasoned hardwood & softwood logs as well as kindling and eco-friendly firelighters online from Blyth Man Shed. Logs are sourced from around Northumberland & the Scottish Borders, these logs are even good enough for the Duke of Northumberland!  Keep an eye open for our “Winter Warmer” promotion, a great money saving deal which will include everything you need to keep warm and cosy this winter.

All logs & kindling can be purchased online and delivered to your door in a Covid secure way. No contact required with all profits going directly back into the shed enabling our work to continue towards preparations for opening to the local community in 2021. 

Recruitment

We are on the lookout for some extra volunteers to start in early 2021. We are looking to fill two volunteer positions, Delivery Driver & Social Media Manager. If you are interested in either opportunity, please get in touch by emailing us at  info@blythmanshed.org.uk

So, the big question is, when is the shed opening?

We know many of you are eagerly awaiting the big news. The Committee are just as desperate to get the shed open as you, but it’s important that we have all things considered and in place before Shedders come in and begin working on projects. So, for this reason we’re still a few months away from being fully operational.

Keep a close eye on our Facebook page as this is where we’ll keep you all updated on Shed news, developments and the all-important ‘opening information’ in 2021.

Keep in Touch – it’s good to talk!

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/blythmanshed/

Email:  info@blythmanshed.org.uk

Website: www.blythmanshed.org.uk

WhatsApp/ Text / Telephone: 07821 536141

Click Here for Logs & Kindling online shop

Blyth Man Shed Online Shop

For now, from all of us at Blyth Man Shed we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very peaceful Christmas and a bright New Year!

We continue to get membership enquiries and progress update requests, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give an update here.

As you might expect, the Covid19 pandemic has had a huge impact on our activities to get the shed up and running. From the mothballing of funding stream applications to carrying out the renovation works required in the shed. That being said we have been beavering away, just very slowly under the restrictions the lockdown has placed upon us.

We’ve cleared some major hurdles during the last couple of months including the complete clearance of the yard area (which will become the Blyth Man Shed garden/allotment area). We have also cleared the shed of it contents and one of the biggest achievements to date has to be the replacement of the shed roof. This now gives us a watertight, secure and weather proof premises for all our shedding activities.

Over the next few weeks there will be further core activities going on at the shed, and we’ll update this blog as and when these key tasks have been completed.

In other news… Despite the restriction’s lockdown places upon us, we have managed to develop a small income stream with the sale of kindling. Demand for our kindling took us by surprise and we initially struggled to keep up with demand. We’ve now sorted that out and continue to supply our net bags in the Blyth area with all proceeds from the sales going directly back into the Blyth Man Shed project.

We’re still a little way off accepting members, so were asking anyone interested in becoming a member to email us at info@blythmanshed.org.uk with their contact details or text us on 07821 536 141 and once we’re ready to open the gates and begin the serious work of ‘Shedding’, one of the team will be in contact.

That’s all for now. Until our next update, stay safe!