THE sheriff of Southampton, Cllr Peter Baillie, performed an unusual opening on Wednesday morning: a shed.

Instead of cutting a ribbon he sawed through a plank of wood to officially launch Bitterne Shed Club.

The plank cutting was followed by a barbecue and the cutting of a shed-shaped cake.

Club co-ordinator Keith Marsh gave an explanation of the men’s shed movement.

“Men’s Sheds originated from the shed in a back garden scenario, a place where a man would go and carry out tasks such as restoring furniture or fixing machinery. The first Men’s Shed Club was opened in Tongala, Australia in July 1998 and targeted “shedless” men, encouraging social activities and friendships,” he said.

“Men typically find it more difficult to build social connections than women and, unlike women of a similar age, less older men have networks of friends and rarely share personal concerns about health and other worries. Many men find that when retirement comes, they lose their personal identity and purpose.”

Men’s Sheds is about meeting like-minded men, sharing skills and knowledge, and gaining a renewed sense of purpose and belonging. As a by-product, it reduces isolation and feelings of loneliness, allowing men to deal with mental health challenges more easily and to remain independent.

The slogan for Men’s Sheds is “Shoulder To Shoulder”, shortened from “Men don’t talk face to face, they talk shoulder to shoulder”, adopted after the 2008 Australian Men’s Shed Association Conference.

It was recognised that whereas women are happy to chat over a coffee table, men prefer to chat shoulder-to-shoulder, for instance, at a bar or work-bench.

There are now 900 Men’s Shed Clubs in Australia and the concept has spread around the globe. There are over 200 clubs in Ireland, 50 in New Zealand and 11 in the USA. Here in Britain there are now 461.

Some clubs specialise in a particular skill such as repairing electrical appliances, or carpentry, or maintaining community facilities, but many have a wide and diverse range of activities.

The aim for the Bitterne Shed Club, which is a Bitterne Parish Church outreach programme, is that it will undertake projects for the Bitterne community, provided they can be carried out at their Shed in the centre of Bitterne. For more information email BitterneShedClub@gmail.com.