Projects

When Borrow Wood Schoool got in touch with us – they asked us.. “Can you make a wellington boot rack – something the children can leave their Wellies on for wet days outside ?””No worries- I think we can manage that” I replied. So the school came back to us and said “Great, can you make 10 ? 🙂 ” and the challenge was on for the summer ! In a few days we’d knocked up a design and the Mark one “Welly Wagon” was the result. We dropped this off just before the end…

The Shed Group makes lots and lots of homes for Derby’s wildlife, Some of them have been gifted to local groups such as Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Friends of Chaddesden Wood and Friends of Nottingham road Cemetery – our signature engraved boxes are also for sale towards group funds Just some of over 150 we have produced to date Each one made is to last from recycled materials with a waterproof lid and dimensions to meet RSPB and British Bat Association standards

Our annual summer fair – Oakfest has seen our shed stand twice now selling our usual collection of shed–made goods, but this ism’t our only involvement in this anual celebrationof Oakwood’s community spirit ! Shed support goes a little deeper . The shed has on several occasions, been been delighted to help the team by producing sign-posts and flags for the car parking marshals to direct the traffic. Signs were cut by hand from 5mm plywood and stencils for the various places to go were cut using the laser cutter. These were sprayed up and…

We were very happy to produce an information board for Dementia Friendly Oakwood to use on displays and support the very valuable work they do with the local Dementia Cafe. The double leaf “diptych” format was designed and agreed with Dementia Friendly Oakwood before being constructed from 9mm Plywood and “hockey stick” framing and a backing of 4mm cork composite. The result is a board which can be folder and clipped together for easy transport and protects the notices pinned to the board. You can find out more about Dementia Friendly Oakwood here https://www.facebook.com/DementiaFriendlyOakwood

At the end of 2025 we were looking to see how we could be part of the local Christmas Spirit – The counsellors of Chaddesden and Oakwood suggested that we should make some Christmas Decorations of course we agreed and we drew up designs for a simple tree decoration that the children could colour in and hang on the newly installed Christmas trees – By the end of 2025 we have cut over 500 on the laser cutter and ot looks like in 2026 we will be making some more. Because this required specialist materials…

The shedders have been asked to support several sporting events making trophies and medals to hand out to participants in the fit and fun day smoothie bike challenge, Derby Active and the University of the Third Age regional Pickleball competition. We spent a while creating unique designs for medals for participants and winners as well as making an overall winners trophy from recycled ply on an elegant turned wooden base. Using a combination of laser cutting  and wood turning to turn our initial design into reality we  produced a fun prize for both competitors and…

Derby Active asked us if we would help them fix their smoothie bike for their upcoming Fit and Fun day at Oakwood Leisure Centre. The smoothie bike combined a static exercise bike with a food blender to provide a source of exercise and a refreshing beverage at the end – the more you peddle the finer the blender blitzed your drink. Sadly it had seen better days and the bike was in need of a bit of TLC. The shedders picked it up, welded new brackets, adapted a new blender to fit and fixed up…

Owls, it turns out, are very particular about where they live- so in another collaboration with The Friends of Chaddesden Wood they wanted to make sure that our resident Tawny Owls had something that would come up to their very exacting standards, so step forward the shedders! We were able to research the right sort of box and the gang went into action. Manufactured with our usual recycled 12mm exterior plywood we thought it needed that little extra touch – so to make sure the Owls felt particularly at home, we engraved one on the…

Councillor Jerry Pearce asked us if we could help Chaddesden Park with a bit of help. The park had been kindly gifted with 4 large (and very heavy!) chainsaw carvings for installation in the park. However having a statue, and safely installing it are two very different things, and funding was not available to put them into the park. Step forward the shedders! – Fortunately Rob our “concrete expert” was able to provide advice on exactly what we had to do to fix them in place. So, we drew up plans, risk assessments, got approvals…

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust asked us to make some wooden play blocks for tots to play with at their outdoor sessions. With the help of Friends of Chaddesden Wood we were able to source some fallen wood and our own scrap wood to make around 170 blocks during our Shed Pop Up session in January. All packed safely in a large plastic storage box, they are sure to provide fun for the tots at their sessions.