ONS features at The Chaddesden Big One and Oakfest
The day after we opened our Hub in the Racecourse Park – the shed team were back at it again , fund raising at the Chaddesden Big One festival and just a few weeks later on July 5th we had out gazebo out again at the Oakfest – our local event. We were spared some of the most scorching temperatures and both events were blessed with some lovely “more typical summer weather
Chaddesden Big one
Our first outing was to Chaddesden Big one – where we had our usual selection of wildlife boxes – earlier on in the week we had supported a Bug Hut making session for the young people of Oakwood at the community centre, here we had our usual wares on display as well as our board where we explained our overall plans for development of the Hub
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Then just a few weeks later we had the chance to do it all over again at Oakfest, and had a VIP visitor in the shape of our new Mayor Cllr Jonathan Smale. Jonathon was most interested to hear of our plans and the work we have done for the local community – particularly the new “welly waggon” project for Borrow Wood School which is located in his home ward of Spondon.
We are hoping to be able to host the mayor back at our Hub on Racecourse park as we start to move into phase 3 of our project
Hot on the heels of our completion of Phase One came the completion of phase Two – this added a scurity fence and outlines the area we plan to use for our future development on phase 3 and 4 – you can read more about our project to bring about a community craft hub here https://oakwoodshed.org.uk/the-shed/
T he fence was erected in just two days by our local Ilkeston Fencing – who did a great job and completed the 10 m x 20 M area for the development of the craft hub –
Once the Fence was up we could start to fit out the container and turn it into an operational workshop – benches were constructed and lining put in place – the final step being to wire the workshop for a ring main. At the moment we only have indirect access to power via an extension cable or via a portable power supply, but the wiring means that whatever the source of power connected the sockets and lighting work just like a normal 240V supply. The plan is to connect this to the mains supply in future phases
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After 2 weeks of quite heavy grafting – our new “base camp” Community Craft Hub was ready for us to open up for operations . It’s just a start but now it was time to Celebrate what we’ve achieved so far !
June 13th – Our Official Opening !
Saturday 13th of June saw an absolutely glorious day for our opening – Catherine Atkinson (MP for Derby North) came along to give us an official start by cutting the ribbon in front of 30 or so shedders and invited guests from our sponsoring organisations. Shedders were on hand to explain our overall objectives and the plans to develop our shed into a more complete offering. The two Gazebos show where the new hubs will be built as part of phase 3 and phase 4 and we had examples on display of our community projects already completed
Catherine Atkinson (MP for Derby North which includes the Racecourse Park) cutting the Ribbon
A Drones Eye View of our Opening – Catherine cuts the cake
Ann Cusick Added to the festivities by producing an absolutely delicious Shed themed giant cake – which our shedders and guests made quick work in eating . Shed members were on hand to explain our plans and ambitions to the general public and we got the chance to show off the various things we had made for community projects
Our New Craft Hub is now open on Wednesday Mornings and Saturday mornings 10-12
Phase one of our project to create a new permanent home for the shed group has been a long time coming – you can read more about our project to bring about a community craft hub here https://oakwoodshed.org.uk/the-shed/
Phase One of the project is to create an initial small workshop and storage facility we refer to as “Base Camp” . Today our shedders created a milestone in our plans which is to prepare the site for the delivery of our newly purchased shipping container.
We made a good start this morning – digging the foundations for the “base camp” container unit. The objective was to dig out four holes for the concrete bases which then had to be back-filled and levelled with stabilising aggregate and then compacted ready for tomorrow.
Over the last week or so we have been making special moulds which we will place on the bases tomorrow to create poured concrete pads, each one levelled to the millimetre. These pads will then provide the ideal mounting points for our steel shipping container when it arrives (scheduled for 21 May) . As always with a shed project, safety is a top priority and we left the site secured and tidy ready to start again in the morning.
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DAY TWO
The guys picked up where we had left off the previous day – today was the day to pour concrete into our shutterings. The weather was kind to the team and by the time the morning was completed our team had mixed and poured enough to fill the containers and smooth the surface off to the appropriate heights – by mid afternoon all that was left was to screw on the lids and secure the site neat and tidy for the final reveal on day three
Mixing the concrete which is transferred to our moulds agitated to remove bubbles and smoothed on the top to provide a smooth level surface. Inside each mould are laser cut plaques intended to mark each base with our group logo – Who say’s nothing set in concrete !
The site all completed on the end of the second day. Plinths all in place and concrete poured – now to leave the concrete to set for a few days
DAY THREE
After leaving the concrete to set for 5 days it was time for the big reveal – we now have perfectly level solid foundations for our shipping container to be delivered in just over a week’s time . The logos are visible on the sides, we’ve learned a lot for our next concreting project.
The final view of the site with all four plinths in place leaving the site tidy and ready for the “Base Camp” container – We are hoping to see this delivered on May 21st
Day 4 – The Final Day
We had a cracking day for the last day and the weather couldn’t have been better !. The long awaited “Base Camp Shed” arrived and is now seated on it’s pre-prepared blocks. This brings to an end Phase one of our five phase project – over the next week we shall start to fit out the container to serve as a small workshop and some storage.
Jon Berni provided some excellent Drone pics, which really put our Craft hub space into context
Yet another good Shedding day focussing on things we will need for our Stall on 18th March at Oakwood Community Centre – More Bat Boxes and “A sign” boards Plus a new display board for informational events and a Sideshow stall “buzzer game”
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Andrew definitely need to improve on his sausage technique though ! – Although very nice in the end they took FOREVER to cook despite desperately encouraging the barbeque with his blowtorch !
All of this work will be on our stand on 18th March at the community Centre where we hope to be “banging the drum” for our shed group and raising a few quid towards the Racecourse craft hub
Our Second Pop-up event of the year has proved a popular. Twelve Shedders Came along to the pop up on the 31st January, and we welcomed some new members as well as our regular contributors.
Things went really well and we are already planning our 3rd pop up for the 28th February
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Fortunately the weather held out for us, and In just a few hours we managed to create a new style bat-box, a luxurious squirrel box, made progress on our new display sign and made “A” style signs for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust for use at their events. Most importantly we all had a good time, drinking tea, eating flapjacks and sausages while working together to make our various projects.
Below you can see some of the work we produced on the day
Saturday 10th January ’26 was a beautifully bright winter’s day but bitterly cold. Still, several of our shedders braved the cold for our first pop up shed of the year.
Soon we had shrugged off the ice and snow as the sawdust really started to fly ! by the end of the day we had created 168 nature blocks for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Nature Tots group , built 2 huge owl boxes for friends of Chaddesden wood and chopped up a huge heap of plywood for bird boxes etc.
Of course we still found time for coffee, some banter and couldn’t resist playing with our newly made blocks – we hope that the kids of “Nature Tots” will enjoy their new all natural and nature friendly building blocks as much as we did !
Thanks to our friends at AGE UK Derby, We got an invite to take part in this year’s British Senior Snooker at the Vaillant stadium . We set up our stand and got quite a few enquiries, we even got the chance to explain what shedding was all about to the producer of the event – but without doubt the best bit was that we got seats in the second row for the semi finals
Oakwood Neighbours Shed at the British Seniors Championship
Sad to say, some of us remember Jimmy White when he was the “new kid on the block” and not the elder statesman of the game, but Just like Jimmy, we hope to prove that age is no barrier to success
Foundation Derbyshire brings together several local charitable funding organisations, including the Randal Trust, which has kindly made a grant to the Oakwood Neighbours Shed project during 2025. Foundation Derbyshire website.
October 25th was Derby Assemble day down at the Museum of Making. The team set up a stall, along with several dozen others, to showcase some of our ‘makes’ and get the word out to any interested visitors about our Shed project.
There were a number of items for sale on the stall; Halloween ‘Lanterns’ – ingenious cubes with a small ‘candle’ light inside, Christmas decorations, coasters and bird boxes. There was also an opportunity for visitors – particularly the children – to get ‘hands on’ and put together lanterns or ‘spider’ models. Once again, we made some cash to supplement the Shed funds!
It was interesting too, to see what other stalls had to offer. A well attended day, with lost of families, as it was also half term. Below is the ‘team’ all set up and ready to go!
Our second participation in a community event was a big success. Oakfest has run for several years now and on the back of a successful attendance at Chaddesden Big 1 in June, Oakwood Neighbours Shed decided to set up a stall again at Oakfest. We also got involved in producing some signage for the organisers to add to the event.
Our team of Shedders got together to cut a signpost and finger signs and then laser cut templates for the lettering. Good job all round.
For our stall itself, Andrew brought along birdboxes and laser cut coasters to sell – profits contributing to the Shed fund – plus a laser engraved sign featuring our reworked logo design by Pete Gill. Pete also quickly put together some foldable display panels and A3 posters to show off the new ‘corporate’ look he is developing. The stall setup is coming together event by event.
Although the weather wasn’t brilliant on the day, the event was well attended and we got plenty of interested visitors to the stand and bird box and coaster sales. In fact we nearly sold out!
