Make do and mend is very much alive and taken to a whole new level in the Colne Valley.
At Slawit Repair Café, a band of volunteers can repair anything from old computers to stuck zips … and also revive sentimental things that mean so much to folk.
A special moment came when a man brought in a 50-year-old tape recorder that had not worked for decades. When they repaired it, the tape still inside started to play – and it was a recording of the man and his sister talking when they were children.
One woman brought along a jewellery box with a dancing ballerina … but the tune hadn’t worked for 40 years.
One of the café’s ‘fixers’ sorted the problem out and it was a highly emotional moment. The lady heard the tune for the first time since she was a child and had thought it could never be repaired.
Over the last two years, 844 items have been brought in for possible repair and volunteers have managed to mend 615 of them, which they think has saved just over £35,000 in repair costs.
Slawit Repair Café was set up by the wonderfully-named Spanner Spencer and his wife, Kirsty, who live in Crosland Moor.
Spanner’s dad, Bryan Spencer, picked up the nickname when he was in the army and liked it so much he christened his son Spanner and it couldn’t be a more apt name for someone running a repair café.
Repair Cafes originated in Amsterdam around 15 years ago and have now spread all over the world. Locally we also have them in Huddersfield town centre, Kirkheaton and Holmfirth – and it’s all about giving items a new lease of life rather than throwing them away into landfill.
Spanner said: “Manufacturers would now rather have you throw something away if it stops working and buy a new one to replace it but there is often another way.
“Many things can be repaired – we see lots of vacuum cleaners and toasters – and it’s great that in the Colne Valley many people often can’t bring themselves to throw anything away so bring it to us instead.’’
Slawit Repair Café meets on the first Sunday of the month from 10am to 1pm in the basement at The Civic on New Street in Slaithwaite. The next one is Sunday October 4.
The repair cafe meets in a free space provided by Experience Community, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that helps people with physical disabilities enjoy the benefits of outdoor and green spaces.
The repair cafe was set up in 2024 and now has around 30 volunteers ranging from those who meet, greet and organise the repairs to the fixers who are experts in their field.
Some can work wonders with sewing and repairing clothes, while others are experienced at electrical repairs, making things such as old lamps work again.
There are also specialists who are great with microelectronics and computers.
When Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 many laptops and computers became defunct, but the repair specialists can put in a free software system called Linux that brings them back to life and includes free updates and security patches.
Spanner said: “One of the big bonuses of the repair café is that we keep so much out of landfill … and old laptops can be one of the biggest polluters.’’
All the repairs are free, with the repairs carried out on the day. The fixers show people exactly how they are sorting the device to make it work again.
If it needs a new part, the fixers tell people what’s needed and where to get it and then they can return the following month for the repair to be done.
The items they see and are asked to fix are often seasonal. They get lots of lawnmowers and hedge trimmers in summer and fairy lights in the run-up to Christmas.
Grandparents often bring in toys from their own childhood – perhaps train sets or Scalextric – which they want to pass down to the next generation in working order.
One of the strangest items Spanner has seen was a remote-controlled boat that dropped bait into the water for anglers.
Spanner says demand has really ramped up over the last six months and they now get upwards of 60 people at each repair café.
On Saturday, October 17, Slaithwaite Repair Café will be holding its first event to mark International Repair Day, where its fixers will teach people how to mend things themselves.
Spanner said: “This year’s theme is ‘repair brings us together’ which felt about right for a village that’s already turned up for this in numbers.
“It’s a morning of short, free, hands-on workshops at The Civic, each one covering a single repair skill from start to finish in under an hour with no previous experience necessary.
“It includes testing whether a fuse has actually blown, working out if a cable is broken somewhere inside, checking batteries before you bin them, sticking things back together properly, sewing and mending clothes and learning all about Linux so you can get your old computer running like new.’’
People can book a place at the workshops online at https://slawitrepaircafe.com/repairday or just turn up on the day, although spaces might be limited if a lot of people book in advance.
For more on Slawit Repair Café, go to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/slawitrepaircafe or website at https://slawitrepaircafe.com.
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.
