A reminder to all – we are open again, post the Omicron hiccup!

This Saturday, 5th Feb, will be our first Saturday re-opening, to coincide with the monthly Legion book sale.  Come along, find a book from the Legion sale, grab a free coffee with us, come and take the weight off your feet and have a blether, inspect the workshop.

9:30 till 12:00 – Banchory Men’s Shed at the Legion Banchory, Ramsay Road.

Our full opening hours are 10:00 till 12:00 every Tuesday and Thursday, and the first Saturday of every month to coincide with the Legion book and car boot sales.  Updates and extra sessions – see our Planner page

As most people will know by now, we were honoured to have Princess Anne officially open the Banchory and District Men’s shed on Wednesday.  This occasion marked the end of a long road to getting our Shed open, and the proper beginning of its life serving the community.

On a day when attendance was necessarily restricted by COVID precautions, by some last minute member illnesses, and because we could only advertise it beforehand within our membership, a goodly number nevertheless turned up.  We saw the Princess meet key Shed members and saw her walk-through the workshop and social area inspecting the various exhibits we had prepared.  Everyone commented that she showed genuine interest in our membership and in what we had prepared.

Princess Anne also took the time to talk to every single member of the shed present, and their wives, as we were waiting outside, before unveiling the plaque (hand engraved by Shed member John Mason) and finally departing.

Our official photographs were taken by Amro Hassan of Hi-Land Photography near Skene and were excellent.  The selected shots are below, plus shortly Amro will post all 100 shots he took on his web site for access.  In the meantime, if you want a copy of any of the photos below, please get in contact by emailing membership.bms@gmail.com .

See also Hiland Photography on Facebook

HRH The Princess Royal Unveils Plaque at Official Opening of Banchory Men’s Shed

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, today unveiled a commemorative plaque marking the official opening of Banchory and District Men’s Shed.

Her Royal Highness was greeted on arrival by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire, Mr. Alastair Macphie, who introduced the Deputy Lieutenant of Kincardineshire, Mrs. Claire Maitland, and Mr. Paul Evans, Chairman, Banchory and District Men’s Shed.  Mr. Evans introduced  Mr Alastair Black, Legion Scotland Area Chairman for Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine, then invited the Princess Royal to enter the Men’s Shed workshop.

The Princess Royal toured the new Men’s Shed facility in Banchory, accompanied by Banchory Men’s Shed Chair, Mr Paul Evans, who said: “We are honoured to welcome HRH The Princess Royal to mark the opening of our Men’s Shed. It has been heartening to see this project finally come to fruition after many hurdles, so it can go forward as a resource for men in our community who are looking for new social contacts and activities, for example after retirement.”

In the workshop, Mr. Evans presented members Mr. Fred Harrott (silversmithing), Mr. Alan Pumfrey (bird table construction) and Dr. Bill Byth (bicycle maintenance).  Entering the Men’s Shed social area, Mr. Evans presented members Mr. John Dunnett (model steam engines), Mr. John Mason (clock repair) and Mr. Duncan Davidson (Treasurer).  Mr. Alan Pumfrey demonstrated his model railway, and showed models of Banchory railway buildings that he had made.

Banchory and District Men’s Shed is the first ‘Shed’ in Scotland to link up with Legion Scotland and it was unfortunate that one of the champions of this, Mr Jason Schroeder – Executive Officer of the Scottish Men’s Sheds Association (SMSA) – could not take part on the day due to illness. Jason is an ex-serviceman and championed this collaboration from its origin in 2015. Mr Schroeder said: “After so many years in the making, I was personally gutted to not be able to attend the opening due to illness; however, the SMSA still ensured representation at this very special event. It was kind of HRH Princess Anne to convey her best wishes for a speedy recovery and I shall be concentrating on just that. I look forward to visiting the Shed and the guys as soon as it is safe for me to do so.”

The Princess Royal then spent some time chatting outside with other members and guests of the Shed and their wives, including Gerry Robb, the architect upon whose plans the Shed premises were based, and Bruce McCombie, the building contractor for the conversion.

Mr Evans then invited Her Royal Highness to unveil a plaque commemorating the opening, which was hand-engraved by member Mr. John Mason.

Finally, Mr. Alan Pumfrey presented Her Royal Highness with a gift of a bird box made by himself.

More photos to follow

Full press release here

Banchory Men’s Shed are pleased to announce that the building works for the “Phase 1” Men’s Shed premises (the workshop area) are now complete and open.

We are holding a public opening on

Saturday 2^nd November 2019 at 10:00 a.m.

(to 12:00 noon) at the premises under the Banchory Legion in Ramsay Road

Phase 1 area (workshop) – Waiting for the floor paint to dry…

All are invited to come along and see the completed workshop area, view the plans for the Phase 2 building and see the model of the whole Shed premises, together with other relevant exhibits.

Share your ideas on how we can help the local community, consider making donations to help maintain the BMS.  Areas of support could include donation of your old unused garden and workshop tools which the BMS will refurbish and sell on – we are considering a home collection service in the near future.

Free tea, coffee and biscuits available

This opening coincides with the Legion’s monthly Book Sale, so please come along and support that as well.

Phase 2 also now fully funded

We can also announce that the “Phase 2” (Social area) fund-raising has reached its target of £57,000, thanks to some very hard work put in.   We are now obtaining final confirmatory quotes to enable us to plan the next phase of building work.  This will be significantly more extensive than the Phase 1 area and we will update you as this progresses.

Whilst 2^nd November is the public opening date, the Men’s Shed has of course been in operation for some time and all are welcome to our social meets every Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  Over the coming weeks, these will move from their previous location upstairs in the Legion to the new workshop area, which will start out in life as a mixed social/workshop space.

To keep up to date with the Banchory Men’s Shed blog, we have now added a How-To for “RSS” – the standard method web sites use to notify updates – please see our Follow Us page.