Cowes Men’s Shed is open to everyone aged 18 and over and not just men! 25% of our members are women. We offer a carpentry workshop, craft room, IT area and gardens with polytunnels, raised beds, seating areas and even red squirrels. There is no membership fee and the Shed is ready to welcome you five days a week (Mon-Fri) 10am to 3pm, 50 weeks of the year. Parking is available locally and the Cowes Park and Ride bus stop is just a few minutes along the road. Come along to connect, converse and create!
Some sheds locally exclude women and men aged younger than 55, so if that has happened and you are disappointed, do come to Cowes Men’s Shed and join our ‘Shedders’.
Our Project Leader is available to lend a hand, give guidance (when requested) and to show members how to use equipment unfamiliar to them.
Besides woodwork and pottering about in the gardens, we have also played host to people quilling, knitting, model-making, singing and numerous craft activities.
If you don’t fancy doing anything practical – you can always pop in for a chat and a cuppa. Arrive when you like, leave when you like. No commitment.
Click on this link for Cowes Men’s Shed current leaflet
Cowes Men’s Shed Awarded National Lottery Funding
Cowes Men’s Shed was awarded a very generous sum from the National Lottery Community Fund which will significantly support the Shed up to March 2027. Cowes Men’s Shed is the only shed operating in the Cowes area and has the longest opening hours on the Island.
Adam Martin, the Project Leader, said: ‘Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for recognising the valuable work we do across the Isle of Wight and thanks to National Lottery players who have helped us improve the quality of life of many people, as well as helping other charities and good causes and putting smiles on faces’.
Find Cowes Men’s Shed at 25-26 Somerton Industrial Park, Cowes, PO31 8PA
Adam, Cowes Men’s Shed Project Leader
We have a few power tools . . . . .
Why not come along and see what’s happening? Fix something, build something, invent something, share your skills with like minded people with an interest in drinking tea and eating biscuits!
This could just be what you have always needed, don’t be bored at home and if you have nowhere to practice your carpentry or gardening skills – this is for you.
Minimum £2 donation towards refreshments when you visit.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
HEAD TO THE SHED – ITS THE SMART AND HEALTHY CHOICE
Make sawdust . . . . and drink tea!
What is a Men’s Shed?
Men’s Sheds (or sheds) are similar to garden sheds – a place to pursue practical interests at leisure, to practice skills and enjoy making and mending. The difference is that garden sheds and their activities are often solitary in nature whilst Men’s Sheds are the opposite. They’re about social connections, friendship building, sharing skills and knowledge, and of course lots of laughter.
Sheds are whatever the members (or Shedders as we call them) want them to be. Although labelled sheds, they often aren’t sheds at all. They can be empty offices, Portakabins, warehouses, garages, and in at least one case, a disused mortuary. Some sheds are purpose built workshops, but they rarely start out that way. Many don’t have premises at all in the beginning and instead form a group that meets regularly for the social connection, company and camaraderie until they can find somewhere to kit out with tools.
Activities in sheds vary greatly, but you can usually find woodworking, metalworking, repairing and restoring, electronics, model buildings or even car building in a shed. Sheds typically attract older men, but many have younger members and women too. Whatever the activity, the essence of a shed is not a building, but the connections and relationships between its members.
Why are Men’s Sheds needed?
Research shows the negative impact of loneliness and isolation on a person’s health and wellbeing. Recently more evidence has come to light that shows loneliness and isolation can be as hazardous to our health as obesity and excessive smoking. Surveys from mental health charities are finding that millions of people report feeling lonely on a daily basis.
Men typically find it more difficult to build social connections than women, and unlike women of a similar age, older men have fewer networks of friends and rarely share personal concerns about health worries. It is not the case for all men, but for some, when retirement comes, it can feel like their identity and purpose are lost. Men’s Sheds can change all of this.
Sheds are about meeting like-minded people and having someone to share your worries with. They are about having fun, sharing skills and knowledge and gaining a renewed sense of purpose and belonging. As a by-product of all of that, they reduce isolation and feelings of loneliness, they allow men to deal with mental health challenges more easily and remain independent; they rebuild communities and in some cases, they may even save men’s lives.
Men’s Sheds are vital
Sheds can play a particularly important part in meeting the needs of older people – particularly older men, who often do not feel that traditional services targeted at older people are right for them.
The creative, productive nature of Sheds provides an activity around which people can form bonds and networks, which may go on to benefit them outside of the Shed itself.
The horticultural areas’ produce is organically grown and delicious!
In general, sheds can play a particularly important part in meeting the needs of older people – particularly retired men, who often feel that traditional services targeted at older people are not right for them. The Isle of Wight has a proportionally larger retired community than many other places in the UK.
Research has shown that loneliness has a hugely negative impact(s) on physical and mental health. Loneliness has been found to disproportionately affect men and elderly people. Men typically find it more difficult to build social connections than women, and unlike women of a similar age, older men have fewer networks of friends and rarely share personal concerns about health worries.
Please click onto the link below for our Equipment Breakages Policy and our Supervision Policy
CMS Equipment Breakages and Supervision Policies
Please click on the link below for the Cowes Men’s Shed 2022 Member Survey
Please click on the link below for more general information
about Cowes Men’s Shed
Cowes Men’s Shed – general info – 2023
Cowes Men’s Shed is a member of the UK Men’s Sheds Association
The Cowes Men’s Shed is supported by Storeroom2010 and many other charities, both local and national. Here are our funders. Thank you all!
(List in no particular order)
Garfield Weston Foundation, National Lottery – Reaching Communities Fund, Leathersellers’ Foundation, Albert Hunt Trust, Henry Smith Charity, WightAID Foundation, Southern Vectis Community Fund, Tesco Bags of Help Covid-19 Fund, Co-op Local Community Fund, Alpkit Foundation, GC Gibson Charitable Trust, HIWCF, Barratt Homes Community Fund, Southern Water Community Grants, IW Council – Mental Wellbeing, Newport & Carisbrooke Community Council, Truemark Trust, Fitton Trust, Morrisons’ Foundation, Misses Ward Trust, Cowes Rotary, Rest-Harrow Trust and Swire Charitable Trust.
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