Tools Shed is coming back in March! This inspiring project teaches Wormwood Scrubs prisoners refurbish and repair garden tools for the community. Donate your garden tools at W6 Garden Centre at Ravenscourt Avenue. Tool Shed gives gardening tools to young gardeners and gives prisoners something useful to do with their time.
The Conservation Foundation runs Tools Shed.
They collect broken and unwanted gardening tools, delivers them to prisons for the inmates to repair in their workshop. Repaired tools are given them to schools and community groups for young gardeners to use.
Tools Shed focuses on refurbishing garden tools that require repair. This project reduces waste by extending the life of existing tools and also provides inmates with valuable skills and a sense of contribution to their communities.
Pre-Covid the scheme ran successfully in a number of prisons, including Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth, Dartmoor and Edinburgh, but the pandemic put paid to its activities. Now it is returning and once again will be refurbishing, repairing, straightening and given a coat of bright new paint to donated garden tools in prison workshops.
Schools and community gardens receive these garden tools. For those schools and community gardens needing tools should contact: tools@conservationfoundation.co.uk.
“Wormwood Scrubs is the first to come back on stream,” David Shreeve, Director of the Conservation Foundation. “Their workshop will be reopening on 3 March, ready for spring.”
Donate tools
Donate your unwanted Garden Tools to W6 Garden Centre. Based at Ravenscourt Avenue, W5 Garden Centre is close to the Ravenscourt Park entrance near King Street, Hammersmith. It is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sundays from 9.30am to 5:30pm.
‘The need is for hand tools suitable for young gardeners – no large shovels or strimmer’s please. Tools are often donated by family members who don’t want to see a relation’s beloved tools going to landfill or gardeners feel it is a good time to bring their gardening aids up-to-date’, says David Shreeve.
Tool shed is a Win-Win project
He describes it as a ‘win-win’ project as everyone likes it. Those who donate appreciate that their often much-loved tools are being saved from going to waste. The schools and community that receive the tools appreciate free much needed tools with a story to them. The prisoners feel they are putting back something to the community.
Tools Shed has made a difference to the lives of both the young people introduced to gardening and to prisoners. The prisoners learn new skills on repairing the tools.
“We’ve had some fantastic letters from prisoners,” said David. “One letter received said ‘Repairing tools gives me a reason to get up in the morning. I feel that I am involved with the local community’.
“I said to one prisoner how he was obviously taking great care with a repair, and he replied, ‘Well the thing is, this is the first proper job I’ve ever had’.”
For more information on the project see Wormwood Scrubs Tool Shed Returns to Ravenscourt Park on Hammersmith Today.
Support the Tool Shed
You can provide financial support to Conservation foundation for the Tool Shed by donating to The Conservation Foundation. Companies, grant funding bodies or donors can find out how to support the project by emailing davidshreeve@conservationfoundation.co.uk.
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