THE Repair Café has started fixing things in Ludlow.

Repair Cafés are spreading throughout the country and in Shropshire, Ludlow has joined cafes in Shrewsbury and Bridgenorth.

A Repair Café is where people can take broken items in the hope they can be repaired, so their useful life is extended and adding to landfill is postponed – at least for a while.

Owners of these broken items can watch while repairs are attempted – and can learn not only that a fix might be possible, but that they, too, might have a go themselves so a new skill is learned.

The repairers, all volunteers, come with skills and expertise built up over the years as they have fixed a variety of items either through financial necessity or simply because they wanted to see if they could.

But in addition to the fixing, they also enjoy a camaraderie, working together, and gathering around a repair, offering tools and advice and suggestions. In the process, they learn new skills.

“It’s that sharing, that watching and learning which creates almost a party atmosphere at all such Repair Café events and, said Diane, who organised the Café.

“That’s exactly what happened at Ludlow’s first Repair Café. There was a buzz of conversation the whole time, with laughter and a cheer when a particularly tricky repair was achieved.”

The range of items which the team of fixers confronted included a doll, a garden fork, a food mixer, a miniature vacuum cleaner, a handbag, a much-used hedge trimmer, an unusual glass table lamp, a bread-making machine, an electronic photo frame containing photos of family from far-distant lands and various pieces of jewellery.

“I’m a glass-half-full person,” said Diane Lyle.

“It’s true that three items didn’t leave the Mascall Centre repaired but they weren’t consigned, at least not directly or immediately, to the rubbish heap.”

If funding can be secured it is hoped that funding the next Repair Café will take place in March 2018.