We hope these videos will give you the flavour of Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafés, both in Swainby Village Hall and Stokesley Globe Community Library.
Our last Repair Cafe was on Saturday 9th August in the wonderful welcoming Globe Library in Stokesley. It was as busy and joyful as ever hence my use of Holst’s music for the planet Jupiter – the bringer of jollity! The environment agency had a presence giving advice on flood risk and prevention and Climate Action Stokesley and Villages promoted Friends of the Earth’s Profit over Planet campaign. And you could see entries for the Fairtrade children’s poster competition. So lots to do as well as saving items from landfill!
Our last repair cafe was on 20th September in Swainby Village Hall and featured among other things a mermaid tail in need of stitching! Our resident sharpener was kept very busy and a doll’s pram that had been in its family for several generations was repaired bringing great pleasure to its one year old owner.
So come to our next repair cafe with your various repair jobs and enjoy this vibrant community event! Have a cuppa, discuss your mending needs with experts and browse the wealth of information in leaflets covering all sorts of climate action related topics.
There’s a bonus for you in the video in the form of the powerful voices of the small but mighty choir from Carlton Primary School singing a song written by leader local musician and music teacher Emily smith. It is the children who will have to deal with what we leave behind.
Here’s a snapshot of our last Repair Cafe which was at Swainby Village Hall on Saturday July 19th. There’s always a first and this time it was a repaired item being returned to the owner together with a poem! What more could you want? Our repair cafes are very lovely community events. There’s always lots of reading material to browse and on this occasion we had a visit from the Environment Agency giving advice and information and answering questions and there was a Friends of the Earth stall.
Our Repair cafe at the Globe Stokesley on Saturday June 14th was remarkable for the very large number of blades of all sorts brought in for sharpening. The summer weather must have inspired a sudden surge of interest in getting out into the garden! There were of course lots of other things electrical, wooden, plastic, textile … and it’s really inspiring to see how the exchanges with repairers can be a real learning experience. Sometimes items need to be taken away to complete the repair. you’ll see one example of that in the video.
Our Repair Cafe in Swainby on Saturday 17th May 2025. Among other items it featured two unhinged wooden boxes both of which had great sentimental value for the owners. So it was very satisfying that the right hinges could be sourced and appropriate modifications made so that they could be fitted. And there were free very healthy looking tomato plants on offer from Pete who has nurtured them from seedhood.
Our repair cafe was at the Globe Library Stokesley on Saturday 12th April 2025. It was also a celebration of three years of repair cafes! What an achievement! There was plenty to do while waiting to speak to a repairer. There was a giving rail, displays encouraging the appreciation of uncut verges to encourage pollinators and to stun us with their wild flower beauty and free magazines on gardening and climate issues. and I saw my first barograph. What a beautiful thing it is!
Our repair cafe in Swainby at the Village Hall on Saturday March 15th 2025. In addition to the usual busy repairing there was a seed share ready for spring sowing. and a kind donation of Jerusalem Artichokes some of which are nestled in our vegetable garden! There was also a display of leaflets related to climate change. so plenty to do while you wait! The wooden man made a second visit. He obviously likes the attention! and there was a thirty year old much loved cloth doll in great need of the nursing and mending skills of Kate!
As Kate said at our 2025 Valentine’s Stokesley Repair Cafe ‘this is the month for showing the love!’ She demonstrated that by offering visitors free bags made by our seamstresses using fabric that might have gone to waste, and in the bags were free climate friendly gifts! Reducing waste is one way to show our love for the planet ❤️
Our busy 18th January 2025 Repair Cafe was in the Swainby Village Hall. An original angle poise lamp which had defeated our repairers for some time was finally mended! There was great rejoicing! Our repairers don’t give up easily! And a bronze figure that had once been a presentation for military service abroad was restored.
Our Christmas Repair Cafe was at the lovely Stokesley Globe library on Saturday 14th December 2024. Christmas decorations and lights were brought for last minute repairs and wonderful Wendy treated us to mulled drinks and vegan mince pies. Two highlights were the resurrections of a battered pig and an accidentally smashed beautiful planter. The final stages of the planter restoration will be provided by our expert porcelain painter at the next repair cafe in the Swainby Village Hall.
Our recent very busy repair cafe was on 16th November 2024 in Swainby Village Hall. Paddington Bear and Aunt Lucy received their ingeniously refashioned outfits that had previously been ravaged by moths. What a moving moment for them that was! And a main theme was trousers needing shortening and many beautiful colourful hippy bags – just my thing – all requiring unpicking of zips and replacement. And then there was Breadgate! Kate, our seamstress extraordinaire, forgot all her principles at the sight of a homemade loaf of sourdough bread! Remember, you saw it here first.
A snapshot of our 12th October 2024 Repair Cafe at the Globe Library in Stokesley. What a lovely space that is! A unicorn had its lights and happiness restored and as usual I was struck by the constructive dialogues going on between repairer and customer. Many items were saved from landfill and there was the opportunity to make draught excluders. What more could we want?!
In the meantime here’s a snapshot of our last repair cafe which was in the Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 12th September 2024. We were visited by a much loved Paddington Bear and Aunt Lucy whose clothes had been attacked by mice during their many years in attic storage. Seamstress Sarah was impressively undaunted by the sorry state of Aunt Lucy’s skirt. And I learned that when you’re very old you don’t have to be perfect. That’s good! And if you’re an old Kenwood Chef you can still get refurbished parts.
Our last repair cafe was in Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 20th July 2024. Amongst the items for repair was a badly ravaged porcelain dog. Needless to say our repairer rose to the challenge magnificently. In the middle of the busy atmosphere, two repairers wrestled with sunshade and Kate gave a lesson in using a sewing machine. And we were very happy to meet a teacher from Stokesley School who showed us a beautiful textile work of art on the theme of climate change that pupils had produced in their enrichment lesson. This was inspired by Jack Turton who at 16 was the youngest member of the CASaV steering team.
Watch the video and you will be transported to our last Repair Cafe at the wonderful Globe Library in Stokesley on Saturday 8th June 2024, during Great Big Green Week. Highlights included a 100 year old German clock which was restored to swinging its pendulum and chiming the hour. It was a joy to be reminded of the oddly beautiful phenomenon that is the Teasmade. The valiant owner had wired it up herself. My mother used to do that using telephone wire, as a child I thought it was perfectly normal to get the occasional electric shock! And there was an antique snowman decoration from someone who was preparing early for Christmas!
Our Repair Cafe in Swainby Village Hall on 18th May 2024 was very happy to welcome Andy from Sustrans to Pete’s bike mending team, and he brought along some very useful kit! PAT testing was offered for the first time by Simon. Very good to have that safety service in house. I find it interesting to listen in on the problem solving and discussions happening over items. One happy owner declares the immortal words “another piece of tat that hasn’t gone to the tip!” and of course tat is better preserved than wasted and one person’s tat is another’s precious object! And a highlight was a spectacular bike with a luxuriously comfortable child carrier in the front. When the repair was complete Simon enjoyed trying it out with Sarah the owner as happy passenger for once rather pedaling her two children up the local hills.
Stokesley Repair Cafe at the Globe Library on Saturday 13th April 2024 was also a celebration of two years of repair cafes in Stokesley and Swainby. As well as helping to reduce the number of items going into landfill, Repair Cafes are a wonderful grassroots community event where contacts are made, tea is drunk, cake is eaten and mending tips are passed on.
We have certainly seen some extraordinary and quirky items at some of our Repair Cafes. Remember the zebra? The 100 years old record player? The life size wooden mannequin requiring knee replacements? Well at our Repair Cafe in Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 16th March 2024 there was the spectacular Coat of Hopes which needed attention after its many miles of travel along dusty roads. The sewing gang was very keen to get involved. There was also our first compost heap repair! And I heard the immortal words from an electrics mender ‘I don’t give up that easily, you know!’ This heroic attitude was also evident in our porcelain repairer who took on a badly mended sugar bowl lid which will no doubt look pristine when he’s finished with it. And I found out what a ring tree is. Who knew?
Some of the highlights of our very green Repair Cafe which took place at the Globe Library, Stokesley on the 10th February 2024. We were able to celebrate at this festival of sustainability and care for the planet by munching Fairtrade chocolate cake. I was struck as ever by the importance of the dialogue between repairer and repairee and this was extended into lessons on learning to use the sewing machine and darning. It was the first time I’d heard darning described as exciting! Items are occasionally taken away by repairers to work on at home. A moth eaten cashmere jumper had been given a new artistic life by Kate and was returned to the delighted owner. And you can see Pete in his workshop making a vital part for a broken lawn mower.
Some highlights from our Repair Cafe that took place on 20th January 2024 at Swainby Village Hall. Items for repair included a 1954 model plane found in an uncle’s attic and a clock which was presented to a Reverend about 112 years ago. What I find striking is the importance of the dialogue between the repairer and the repairee. A lot of learning goes on. Occasionally the other way round. ‘I just give it a shake and it usually works!’
The Repair Cafés are always a wonderful community event and our 18th November 2023 Repair Cafe in Swainby Village Hall was no exception. As well as the buzz of menders performing their miracles and the sharing of Di’s tea and cakes it is also a place where the climate action group can disseminate information and discuss ways of reducing waste. Visitors were invited to create a square for a quilt demanding action for warm homes. The quilt was to be presented to Rishi Sunak. There were some wonderful designs produced. A highlight was the life size wooden mannequin who could no longer stand because of loose knees. And a ceramic owl that was badly damaged and was flawlessly recreated. As always there were a few examples of items having been taken away by repairers to complete at home.
Our 14th October 2023 Repair Cafe at Stokesley Globe Community Library, on top of the usual repairs and advice offered by our wonderful and skilful team of repairers there was also an opportunity to make draught excluders with all the necessary materials provided. Great stuff!! One of the highlights was the lovely lady dancing to the music from her restored portable record player that is over 100 years old and had belonged to her grandmother. And I should also mention Kate’s vegan apple cake that was served by Wendy to accompany her constant production of tea and coffee for all.
Our 16th September 2023 Repair Cafe at Swainby Village Hall with heavy rain probably reducing the number of people bringing items for mending but the repairers were still kept busy. There were lots of wooden chairs. And a shoe! It is very encouraging to see young children embracing the values of thrift and recycling. The youngest prize winner from the recent Upcycling competition came along to receive his prize.
Our 12th August 2023 Repair Café at Stokesley Globe Community Library begins with the sharpest man in town! And incidentally tool sharpening is one of the most requested services at Repair Cafés across the country. And it ends with a magnificent first for us! A zebra that required the services of a team of surgeons to restore its mobility and ability to carry a rider. And in the middle we had the buzz of repairers intent on problem solving, discussing, advising and often fixing!
Our 17th July 2023 Repair Café at Swainby Village Hall included a display of nearly 50 entries for the children’s uplifting upcycling competition. It is good to see how children are thinking about waste.
One of the less expected items at 10th June 2023’s Stokesley Repair Café in the Globe Library was the perfect pair of work trousers made from two pairs of very worn work trousers. The repairers are amazing!
20th May 2023’s Swainby Repair Café as an uplifting affair! What wonderful people the pink t-shirted repairers are with their infinite patience, problem solving skills and a determination to save stuff from landfill. There were some crackers at this one including a porcelain horse that received an impossible to spot new leg. And one mender had taken a seatless chair home after the last Repair Café and recreated a beautiful cane seat. The highlight was an emergency trouser repair half an hour before a wedding at Swainby Church!
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 