A creative writer from Ringwood’s Forest Forge Theatre Company spent the morning with us on 12th October. Jane Rothwell was introduced to the team and encouraged to involve herself with all aspects of the operation and then write up her impression of the repair café afterwards.
See below for Jane’s write-up of her immersive experience. It has provided us with some valuable insights into the visitor experience of our enterprise that have been shared with the whole team. Thank you Jane for coming along and sharing your thoughts with us. Do come again!
We look forward to exploring further collaboration opportunities with Forest Forge.
Saturday 12th October 2024
I have just spent a charming morning at Ringwood Repair Café. It is held at Greyfriars Community Centre and aims to repair small household items rather than throw them away.
They meet once a month and I met some truly delightful people from the volunteers to the hopeful public bringing in their casualties.
The Ringwood café has been in operation for 6 months now and there are over 500 repair cafés throughout the UK.
Ringwood Repair Café is organised by Greening Ringwood, a group of volunteers who have come together under the banner of The Greening Campaign, to create voluntary activities to help inspire community improvement of the local environment.
There are lots of volunteers called ‘fixers’ who will have a go at mending, others are hosts who welcome visitors, help them to register their repair, and encourage them to have tea, coffee and delicious homemade cake!
I spoke with Nancy, Anne and Iryna on the sewing team. They had brought their own sewing machines with them, and all manner of interesting mending paraphernalia.
Hannah had come in with four pairs of child’s trousers, she told me her friend is a carer for a 13 year old disabled child and had asked Hannah if she would help by shortening the trousers.
Hannah had a go but got into a bit of a pickle with it all, so had the bright idea to bring them to the repair café. Sure enough, the ladies got to work and swiftly shortened and hemmed all four pairs, Hannah was delighted and relieved that the task was complete.
Edward brought in a radio he had purchased in 1969; it had stopped working! He told me it meant a lot to him because back in the day he would connect to aeroplane pilots radio communications, and listen for hours, so much so that he was inspired to train as an air traffic controller. Edward did the necessary training and 54 years on, he still works in that profession today! The good news is that the radio was successfully repaired and Edward left chuffed to have it working again.
Margaret brought in a beautiful copper lamp base she had bought 30 years ago in Zambia, where she had once lived. Recently it stopped working and developed a very droopy neck. Bob took control and soon had the appliance stripped right back, replacing the original wiring with new, and repairing the bulb holder neck. Margaret was absolutely thrilled and now plans to continue using her Zambian lamp for another 30 years!
Valerie took along a broken wooden garden fork. John R looked at this for her, but concluded it was not a repair he could complete on the day. He offered to take it home and mend the fork for her, he will contact Valerie when it’s done. What a kind gesture and much appreciated by Valerie too.
Another broken lamp brought in by Dave was successfully repaired. The repair was ‘PAT’ tested, as all electrical items are, on arrival and, when/if mended, on departure.
Portable appliance testing (PAT) is the term used to describe the examination of electrical appliances and equipment to ensure they are safe to use. Most electrical safety defects can be found by visual examination but some types of defect can only be found by testing.
Sadly, not everything is repairable. Janet brought her special toaster in, she had purchased it as her husband enjoys toasted sandwiches. The toaster was extra big to accommodate sandwiches rather than slices, but it had stopped working.
John R took on the job and what patience he has! He stripped the toaster right back to the bare bones, involving several screws, nuts and bolts, he meticulously cleaned every component and then reassembled the toaster. Alas, he was unable to identify the problem and reluctantly declared it unrepairable.
Janet was pleased to have confirmation that the appliance was beyond repair. Sometimes replacement is unavoidable.
These were just a few examples of items that came through the door for repair in a couple of hours I spent at the repair café this morning.
Everyone was made very welcome. All the volunteers are super-friendly and it was obvious they were having a good time too. They even sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to John R!
I spoke to Helen who was on the Welcome desk, it was only her second time as a repair host so quite new. She registered all repairs, weighing each item so that equivalence of avoiding landfill weight by instead being repaired could be recorded.
Repairs undertaken at the repair café are free of charge. However a donation is invited to cover costs, for example venue hire, etc. Everyone today was very happy to contribute, and £103 was donated.
At the end of today’s repair session 21 repairs had been brought in of which 14 were successfully fixed, four were confirmed as repairable (but requiring either additional parts or specialist repair), and three items were declared as ‘end of life’ (unrepairable). The total replacement value of successfully repaired items was £659.
The repair café is an incredibly worthwhile venture, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning with a lovely group doing such a brilliant job for their local community.
Hopefully, more and more people will repair, rather than send to the tip and buy new unnecessarily!
Jane Rothwell
Wordsmiths Creative Writing Group
Forest Forge Theatre Company, Ringwood