Flint Knapping at The Shed

On the 8th and 15th February we were fortunate enough to be visited by an Archaeologist from Manchester University, John Piprani. John was keen to offer flint knapping sessions to people who wouldn’t normally get the chance to experience and learn more. The earliest flintknapped tools were simple flakes used by Stone Age man for cutting into the hides of animals. These developed over hundreds of thousands of years into more sophisticated tools and weapons. John explained the more recent history of knapping using glass, which has similar properties to…

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Engine Shed 16-1-19

More running repairs this week but this week the group’s attention turned to the two boards that make up the Whitworth station.  There was much tea-fuelled discussion about track wiring and the layout that soon overflowed into broader areas of controllers and era-appropriate locos and rolling stock! Thanks to Ken for providing this image of the local area back when the line was still operational.  As well as the station, you can clearly make out Milner St and Market Street and should be able to pinpoint the spot where the…

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Engine Shed 9-1-19

It was a chilly shed when we arrived this morning (barely above freezing outside) but eventually the heaters brought the room up to a reasonable temperature! The group began work making some repairs to the minor damage that the Healey Viaduct board suffered in storage, and started planning effective ways to easily connect the boards together.  We will test some of these out in the coming weeks and hopefully arrive at a solution that is both quick and reliable. We had some productive discussions about the way forward for our…

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The Engine Shed: 2-1-19

Today was the first meeting of our model railway group and as well as existing Shed members we welcomed new Shedder Jon to the group.  Although there isn’t a huge amount of space in the Shed, there is enough for the group to tackle a couple of projects. One of these is the representation of the Whitworth line that Shed member Jack had started a number of years ago but no longer has space for.  Now that it has been brought out of storage, the model requires some repairs, as…

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Things to do at the Shed #3

Connect with us on Social Media.  Do you use Facebook or Twitter?  Connect with us on our social media channels to stay in contact with what is going on at the sheds, contribute to the discussion and help share the news! You can find us on Facebook @whitworthmensshed or Twitter @WhitworthMIS We will be adding other social media channels in future.  If you are a keen user of another channel and would be interested in being an admin for Whitworth Men In Sheds, get in touch or pop along to one…

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Happy New Year 2019!

We hope that you had a relaxing and peaceful break!  Whitworth Men’s Shed will be open again from 2nd January 2019 with two new groups running on Wednesday mornings. Our gardening group is hoping to spruce up the area outside the shed between 9 and 12.  The area we have to work with is a blank canvas so whether you are more interested in digging or designing, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved. We have a new model railway group also starting on Wednesdays.  We have an exciting…

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The Garden Shed

‘The Garden Shed’ is our gardening group.  We plan to do what we can to improve the appearance of this small area of Whitworth for the benefit of local residents, car-park users, passengers waiting at the bus-stop and motorists passing by! The group meet on Wednesday mornings between 9am and 12.oo noon.  If you are interested in getting involved please come along!  There is room for gardeners of all abilities and none.  We have areas that at the moment are a ‘blank canvas’ just bursting with potential for next Spring!  Whether…

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Things to do at the Shed #2

Get in touch

Connect to the free wi-fi!  Have you got a smart-phone?  Once you’ve taken the weight off and sorted out a cup of tea or coffee make sure you don’t forget to connect your device to our free wi-fi network and save your data! We have two networks that should be visible in your phone’s list of available connections: WMS Public – doesn’t require a password and is accessible to the general public within range of the shed WMS Members – you will need a password to connect to this network. …

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Precious Plastic 17-12-18

The group had planned to source a sufficiently heavy-duty cutting assembly and motor for the plastic shredding machine. However, our attention has shifted to evaluating an alternative machine to chop up waste plastic! We have been experimenting with an old office paper shredder to see how it performs when fed old milk bottles etc. On the face of it we did not expect it to do very well but we were pleasantly surprised. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been given that it was advertised as being able to handle old CD’s…

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