‘Could Repair Cafe fix my clock?’
Bearsted now has its very own Repair Cafe, where locals can take items to be fixed. Alan Smith went along to see if the volunteers could mend his broken clock...
In the past, my paternal family has had strong links with the Royal Navy.
My grandfather and father, who fought in the First and Second World War respectively, each rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
So it is perhaps not surprising that my son also developed an interest in the sea.
This was reflected in his bedroom, which we decorated with a brass porthole clock, marked "Royal Navy", though it was in fact a copy shipped from India. Sadly, it only worked for about five minutes.
My own feeble attempts at repair established the problem was with the hands not gripping on the spindle properly. But I got no farther.
Then I heard about the Repair Cafe at Bearsted. It is one of the many strands of the Bearsted Climate Action Network (CAN), a group of environmentalists seeking practical ways to help save the planet. The concept of the Repair Cafe is simple.
If you have something that is broken, instead of tossing it away and buying another, you take it along toa hub where volunteers with different skills will have a go at fixing it. If they are successful, it saves the item going to landfill, saves you money, and saves a waste of the earth's resources.
It's win, win all round. But would they be able to fix my clock?
I took it along to the Repair Cafe which was being held in the WI Hall in Bearsted. My first impression was one of surprise. I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't the hectic bustling place that I found. I arrived five minutes after the opening time and already the place was buzzing with dozens of repairers sitting at their worktables, which were already piled high with broken items brought along by hopeful villagers.
Almost the first person I ran into was the local ward councillor, Valerie Springett. She was clutching a pair of dysfunctional boot warmers, and a rather battered bagatelle game that she hoped the volunteers could fix.
The room looked chaotic, but
in fact everything was very organised. A reception table logged you in, recorded your item for repair and directed you to the appropriate table.
There were places for electrical goods, toys, jewellery, clothing, computers and even for fixing bikes.
At the back of the hall was a mouth-watering display of home-made cakes and buns, along with a tea and coffee counter - I guess that's the cafe part of the Repair Cafe.
The jolly ladies in the kitchen, kindly suggested that if I wasn't very hungry, I should take some of the cakes home.
All repairs and refreshments were free - though of course it was hoped you would make a donation to help towards the cost of the hall hire.
I soon found myself sitting at a bench with volunteer Bob Watts, a retired project manager with the railways.
Bob, 66, had my clock to pieces in no time, and within a further five minutes had it working and reassembled again. He even fixed a dodgy hinge which I hadn't asked him to do.
Bob took the time to explain to me what he was doing as he went along, in the hope that if it went wrong again, I would be able to do the repair myself. I assured him that I would, though to be honest I was secretly thinking that if I tried it, I would snap something off that's what usually happens. Finished earlier than I expected, I took a wander round and met a few people.
One of them was Jonathan Wentzel, a GP from Marden Medical Centre, who was there as one of the volunteer repairers. Assisted by Jeff Chismon, he was tackling Cllr Springett's bagatelle.
I was a little concerned when he seemed to be about to take a hammer to it - Cllr Springett had told me it was a treasured family heirloom of several generations' standing.
But when I saw her later, she seemed happy with the outcome. I soon discovered that there was much more going on at the Repair Cafe than just repairing.
Bearsted CAN is a collection of like-minded individuals all tackling climate change in their own way.
There was a recycling table where items destined for the bin were cut up, restitched or re-glued and generally turned into something useful again. Representatives from Kent Wildlife and Surfers Against Sewage were alsio there, raising awareness about how litter and pollution is harming nature. And in the car park was Alicia Sharp from Zero Waste on Wheels, a mobile refilling station selling plastic-free laundry detergents, hand soaps and shampoos.
I was by now beginning to feel just a little overwhelmed by how much there was we should be all be doing - and how little I personally was doing. It was time for me to return home and put my newly restored clock back on the wall.
At the final count, 29 of the 62 items taken along to the Repair Cafe were successfully mended.
The next event is at the WI Hall in The Street, Bearsted on Saturday, April 29, from 1pm till 4pm. All are welcome.