A man who credits a community shed with saving him from 'a dark place' is inviting others to give it a go.

Lead volunteer Paul West, 55, turned to the Portland Men's Shed three years ago after he was forced to give up work early due to health reasons.

It has now been rebranded as the Portland Shed after the pandemic and has become a unisex workshop held five days a week that Portlander Paul would like as many people as possible to come along to.

He said: "I've got a very personal reason why I first attended the shed. Three years ago I was told I couldn't work any more for health reasons.

"As a relatively young person in my 50s it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was used to working 60 to 70 hours a week and to be told 'you're on the scrapheap' sent me to a very dark place and I ended up coming to the men's shed from there.

"It just took that little step for me to come down there, I'd never done that type of thing before, I was from a catering background and I didn't know one end of the shed to the other.

"All of a sudden it gave me a purpose and it gave me a reason to get up in the morning. At the end of the day it saved me."

Paul moved to Portland around eight years ago from south London. Since becoming lead volunteer he has made some changes to the workshop, which is located on Lerret Ope in Chiswell between the walled garden and the Chinese takeaway.

"I didn't want it to come across as being un-PC by being the men's shed. We used to have a women's session on Thursdays but we found more and more women were interested in learning how to use the tools. A lot of the time their husbands maybe did everything and some of them are widowed and they want to learn how to use the tools to do these little jobs."

Among the many items made at the Portland Shed are bird feeders, planters and benches - with as many items made from reclaimed timber as possible, Paul said.

The Portland Shed is open to anyone from Mondays to Friday from 9am to 4pm. Annual membership costs £15 or it's £5 to take part in one workshop session.

Paul said: "Anyone who wants to can come in and see what we do and have a cup of tea or coffee. We want to work with people who want to come but can't afford the fees, we would rather they come along anyway and we will always give them something to do."

For more information on the Portland Shed, search 'the Portland shed' on the internet to find the Facebook page and website.

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