The Borrow Shed

Four hundred tools in a garage, and all of them free to borrow

A drill gets used for thirteen minutes in its whole life. So we keep one, and so does everybody else, in a converted garage at the bottom of Kestrel Close. Anyone living on the estate can take anything for a week.

How borrowing works
A white pegboard wall hung with spanners, pliers, cutters and hammers.
Hand tools
Hands guiding fabric under the needle of a sewing machine.
Sewing machines
Spirit levels, squares, saws and screwdrivers hung neatly on a white wall.
Measuring
Reels of thread, a tape measure and scissors on a dark table.
Mending kits
A drawer crammed with open-ended spanners and screwdrivers.
Spanners
A pale blue sewing machine stitching a blue zip into a garment.
Zips and hems

Out right now

The things people ask for most, and when they are due back. Updated by whoever is on the desk, usually by lunchtime.

Carpet cleanerback Thursday

Hedge trimmer, long reachback Saturday

Wallpaper steameron the shelf

Ladder, 3.5 mback Monday

Sewing machine, heavy dutytwo on the shelf

Tile cutterqueue of three

A long pegboard wall over a workbench, filled with spanners, screwdrivers, clamps and saws.

How borrowing works

1

Join at the desk with anything that has your address on it. Two minutes, a card with your name.

2

Take up to three things for seven days. A volunteer shows you how the big ones work before you go.

3

Bring it back clean. If it broke, tell us. Things break; hiding it is the only thing we mind.

4

Need longer? Ring and say so. If nobody is waiting, it is yours for another week.

What it costs

Nothing

Membership is free for anyone on the estate. There is a jar on the desk, and most people put a pound in it, which is how the sewing machines get serviced.

A whole wall of old hand tools, pliers, saws and hammers hung close together. Close view of hands feeding a piece of fabric through a white sewing machine.

Before you come

A hammer, a square, drill bits and pliers lying on a wooden floor.

Know the job, not the tool

Tell us what you are trying to do. Half the time you need something different from what you came for.

The presser foot of a sewing machine holding a white thread on black cloth.

Wednesday is mending night

Six till eight, two volunteers on the machines. Bring the thing with the hole in it and learn to fix it.

Close view of chrome spanners and sockets heaped in a metal tool tray.

Clearing a shed?

We take working tools, with the parts. We don't take paint, chemicals or anything that has been left out in the rain.