Volunteers get to work on travelling tool library

Phil Cohen hopes the trailer will reach communities across Cambridgeshire

A group of volunteers is transforming a rusty trailer into a travelling shed for people to borrow tools and learn about repairing.

The Sheddit project based near Swavesey, Cambridgeshire, plans to set up a mobile tool library that will eventually travel the county.

The idea is for people to share their knowledge of repairing items but also help to tackle loneliness in the community.

Phil Cohen, 67, from Sheddit, said: "It's become an obsession of mine to get this right."

The mobile library will eventually contain tools, machinery, and have its own solar power

Mr Cohen began Sheddit in 2018 when he first moved to Cambridgeshire from South Africa, initially as a place for men to repair things and socialise.

"I thought there must be other people like me, working on their own, and feeling very isolated," he said.

It expanded to become a community shed for men and women, based in a farm barn near Swavesey, with about 30 members.

Mr Cohen now hopes Sheddit can reach people across the county of Cambridgeshire with its mobile library.

"The trailer still looks a bit rusty, but it has come a long way already," he said.

The trailer is about a year off being completed.

It will be like an ordinary library, except for tools instead of books, and have its own power using solar panels.

"If you need a tool or machine that's used maybe once a year, you can borrow it instead of buy it, or just come along to have a cup of coffee," said Mr Cohen.

They initially plan to cover a 10-mile (16km) radius of Swavesey before bringing the library to the rest of the county.

"We'll see how it takes off," Mr Cohen said.

Sheddit's most recent project was a commission to build 100 dormice boxes

Sheddit's last major project was making 100 tiny boxes for dormice to nest in.

The local Wildlife Trust commissioned the tiny houses, which are fixed to trees, to reintroduce dormice to woodland near Swavesey.

Volunteer woodworker Martin Herrington said: "I'm hoping we'll be able to go along with the Woodland Trust and put up a few.

"And perhaps if they get occupied go along and have a look and see them in action."