Our Shed is firmly part of life in Ottery St Mary.

Men’s Shed Ottery

Visit us.

You will find us at 4 Badgers Mews, Hind Street, Ottery St Mary EX11 1BW, opposite the Sainsbury’s car park. We are open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 4pm, and Saturday is our Community Shed day, also from 10am to 4pm. We sometimes open on a Wednesday as a training day for aspiring woodturners. We have an open door policy, so do come and say hello.

Join us.

Membership costs £10 a year, then £4 per visit. New members are always welcome, and we are especially keen to hear from anyone with administrative or teaching skills who would like to give something back to the community. Pop in during opening hours, or get in touch through our Contact Us page.

Our story.

Our Shed began in a Portakabin at The Station. In 2020, with help from members, local committees and our first round of crowdfunding, we secured new premises and completed the move to Hind Street in December 2020. We reopened in May 2021, when four new members signed up on the first day. Since then we have kept adding equipment, most recently a CNC router, and we believe we are now one of the best-equipped Sheds in East Devon. The Shed marks its tenth anniversary on 31 October 2026.

In the community.

Shedders give their time to projects across the area: making Christmas trees with the Ottery Scouts, bug boxes with the Guides, owl boxes for the Tipton St John Eager Beavers, and a bridge for the nature garden at Tipton Primary School. We decorate a tree for the Christmas Tree Festival in the Parish Church, and the Shed is recognised by our local medical practice, the Coleridge Medical Centre.

Funding and donations.

Men’s Shed Ottery is a registered charity (no. 1174652). We are funded by membership fees, commissions, sales of members’ work at local events, and the generosity of our community. We very much appreciate donations. If you would like to make one, please visit the Shed during opening hours and speak to any of our members.

Stay in touch.

For the latest news, member projects, trips and commissions, follow us on Facebook. You can also sign up to our mailing list on the home page.

Yearly Report

As of the end of 2023 we can positively say that our Shed in Ottery St Mary is now firmly embedded in community, being recognised by all including our local medical practice, the Coleridge Medical Centre.

We have had a number of administrative changes with new trustees replacing others who have served their terms. The important fact that our leadership still remains firmly in the hands of our Chairman Rob Petrie. Since he is no longer a trustee, he now calls himself a Shed Manager, but he still is our Chairman as far as I am concerned! And a very good one.

We are probably the best-equipped Shed in East Devon. Our latest acquisition was a CNC Router. This machine has tremendous potential in spite of its steep learning curve!

We continue our membership expansion especially from ladies on Saturday, our Community Shed day. Our regular days are now Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the usual hours of 10am to 4pm.

Occasionally, we open on a Wednesday, as a training day for aspiring wood turners.

As ever, we are looking for new members who have administrative or teaching skills who wish to give something back to the community.

We look forward to an exciting New Year in 2024 with, amongst other endeavours, the possibility for timber storage elsewhere which will enable more space in our premises.

Don’t forget to check out our FACEBOOK page by clicking ‘here’ for more updates, member projects and comissions

Tony Pugh

President

“Around 30% of people in East Devon are aged 65 or over. Men typically find it more difficult to build social connections than women, and, unlike women of a similar age, fewer older men have networks of friends and rarely share their concerns about their health and personal worries.

For some men, when retirement comes, it can feel like their personal identity and sense of purpose is lost. There may be nowhere to use the skills that they have learnt at school, work and over a lifetime, and there are few places to meet people and make new contacts and potential friends.“

(Trustee Tony Pugh 2019)