Ludlow’s Repair Café is all about sustainability. it is a quarterly endeavour and everyone is invited to call in at alternating locations — the Ludlow Mascall Centre or Rockspring Community Centre — the last Saturday morning in January, April, July and October and bring an item to have repaired. The message is simple: instead of throwing something away when it breaks, see if it can be repaired.

The Repair Café began in the Netherlands in 2009 and there are now over 1,500 Repair Cafés in 33 countries — a list that is expected to grow as the message spreads.

The ‘café’ element is, of course, enjoying a tea or coffee while waiting for the repair, either at the Pea Green Café at the Ludlow Mascall Centre or while sitting around in the arm chairs alongside the kitchen area at Rockspring Community Centre. And there’s more.

a bit of a buzz

Each Repair Café has a real ‘buzz’ — a mix of enthusiasm and enjoyment as the volunteers embrace all kinds of unexpected challenges on the day — and a huge sense of camerarderie between the repairers. They share ideas, tools, add extra hands, swap experiences, committed to making something ‘better’ and sending it home working again if they possibly can.  

That buzz is infectious in itself, but the owners themselves bring their enthusiasm, tempered, sometimes, with degrees of hope and, sometimes, trepidation. Many of the items which arrive on the day are precious — not with a £-sign, but because they embody some ancestral history, because they have a story to tell. The look on owners’ faces when items are repaired is itself precious — and infectious — as it is mirrored on the faces of the repairers and the admin team.

The sense of satisfaction is the same, though, no matter the item that appears on the repair tables — and no-one ever knows what to expect! Over the past two years, the repairers have seen household and garden electrical goods and tools; hand tools; furniture; clothes; jewellery; IT equipment; toys; bicycles; mobile scooters; clocks; radios, radiograms and CD players; standard lamps and lights; china, cameras …. the list is endless and is added to each time!

giving back

Because the repairers are volunteers, and a repair can’t be guaranteed, there is no charge but donations are requested to cover costs. Any surplus is given to the Furniture Scheme.

To find out more, contact Diane Lyle: 07786 620 624 or email diane.lyle@btinternet.com