We are delighted to have received the following message from Alistair Black:

Banchory Men’s Shed

It is a pleasure and delight to now see the Banchory Men’s Shed open for business at Legion Scotland’s Banchory Branch and Club building, at Ramsay Road, Banchory.  The organisers have endured a long hard struggle to finally reach this point and they deserve a huge accolade for what they have achieved.  It is also the culmination of an idea mooted back in late 2015 and as covered in the Legion Scotland Today magazine.

I am delighted for two reasons.  Firstly, the area they now occupy needed to be used constructively, usefully and in sympathy with the building.  But secondly and more importantly, the values of the Men’s Shed movement mirror those of the Legion, that is, to provide facilities where men young and old can go and enjoy social connections, build friendships, share skills and knowledge, and of course create a lot of laughter.

The Legion works along the same lines as the Men’s Shed in that we are responsible for enhancing the wellbeing and comradeship of our members.  Similarly, where the Legion can, we will get involved in community projects even though we are more geared to the serving the ex-service community.

The Banchory Men’s Shed is always looking to boost their membership and they are very much hoping that as well as civilian members they will attract ex-service personnel.  So if as an ex-serviceman you feel you can help, or feel you need help, or you would just like to converse with like-minded people, then go along and see what it is all about.  It costs nothing and could quite easily be a life changing experience for some of you.

Alistair Black

Legion Scotland Branch/Club Chairman

A few pictures, whilst everyone was out doing something else

After nearly 5 years, since 16th April 2015, we finally have proper premises for the Banchory Men’s Shed.  It was all going to be so easy, but more on that another time.

Completion of the build on 7th February left us with a social area echoing to the sound of a concrete floor, but only 2 weeks later, on Monday 24th February, we had ourselves a carpet too, with walls all painted between-times by a bunch of Shedders.

We can now set about laying out the Workshop room as a workshop rather than for rather cramped dual purposes, and can look at what we need in the social area too. Whilst opening times will remain for the moment at 10:30-12:00 every Tuesday, it may not be long before we start opening up at other times.

A big event on the horizon is an Official Opening which will be on

Tuesday 19th May 2020 at 10:30 a.m.

Full details in due course.

At this point we would like to thank again everyone involved in bringing our Shed to fruition, with key external parties being Gerry and Adam Robb of Gerry Robb Architectural Services, Bruce McCombie and his crew, Duncans of Banchory, and of course Craig, Alastair and co. in the Banchory Legion, not forgetting Susie for the refreshments which kept us going!  Too many thanks to list Shed members, but you know who you are.

Our membership has been growing steadily since we opened the Phase 1 Workshop and now we have full premises we expect further growth.

In financial terms, we managed to bring in the Banchory Men’s Shed for a total of around £76,000 all-in (Phases 1 and 2), compared to a first estimate back in 2015 of upwards of £120,000 plus the VAT.  This is a creditable performance by all concerned.  Nevertheless, we did run into some issues, notably finding a granite formation protruding into where the floor needed to be, needing some significant rock-breaking by Bruce’s team, and hence we went over even our budget contingency.  We have consumed all grant monies and our bank reserves and are now of the order of £2,000 short once all invoices are in.  If you would like to help, please see our Funding page.  Many thanks.

Thanks to all those helpers painting, wall tiling, sweeping, clearing, etc to get the Banchory Men’s Shed ready for the carpet tiles to be laid on Monday. Looking good!

Well done everyone

The Banchory Men’s Shed is built.

The final building work was complete at the beginning of this week and the final items, being the fire detectors and hook-ups to the Legion’s fire detection and alarm system, were complete on Thursday.

On the Tuesday, our high-tech sink, water heater, and even more high-tech combined sink plug / strainer / overflow were figured out, risk-assessed and commissioned by our resident ex-Drilling Engineer, who shall remain nameless, under the watchful eye of our resident ex-Process Engineer, who shall also remain nameless.

Proof…

All was successful and Tuesday’s cups were duly washed up – in hot water! – luxury – and left to dry. Some problems were however encountered with commissioning the new-fangled tea-towel technology, which, not having been washed beforehand simply shed fluff all over the carefully-washed up mugs.

Having been finally emptied just before, on Friday the blue shipping container was finally taken away by a happy Fife farmer, prior to the expiry of its temporary planning permission.

So the Shed is almost ready for occupation – we just need to get final certification and to notify Aberdeenshire Council.

Thanks to everyone.

On Monday we will start painting the ceiling and walls, please come along and help – the premises will be opened starting 9:00 a.m.