A PROJECT helping to bring men together to share ideas and help reduce loneliness is starting at Mold's Bailey Hill in the new year.

The Men’s Shed concept started in Australia around 1999. It has since spread to New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Canada and, more recently, Europe and the USA with approximately 2000 Sheds worldwide.

This project is about bringing like-minded people together, sharing skills, worries, concerns and having fun. As a by-product, attending a project like Men’s Sheds often reduces social isolation, loneliness and offers a safe space to allow men to deal with mental health concerns.

Recently the Bailey Hill Tripartite Group secured additional money from LEADER funding through Cadwyn Clwyd to pilot a Men’s Shed Project on Bailey Hill. The Project is due to start in January 2023 and will run for three months.

READ MORE: Benchmark of Excellence Award for Bailey Hill Project

Bailey Hill is the site of a Norman motte and bailey believed to date back to around the early part of the 12th Century.

Jo Lane, Mold Town Council's business regeneration project officer, said: “We are pleased to have secured additional funding to pilot such an incredible project on Bailey Hill.

"We will be working with an excellent facilitator, Huw Davies who will oversee the project and run the sessions. We will be looking at ways to make this project sustainable if successful.”

The Leader: Bailey HillBailey Hill (Image: Newsquest)

Huw Davies has been a workshop facilitator since the 1980s and has a huge amount of experience working with a variety of groups. He said: “I am so thrilled to be given this opportunity. The great privilege of being able to offer workshops in a castle using methods as old as the surroundings.

"There is such enormous satisfaction to be had from making something with our hands. And anyone who is able to should have that chance.”

READ MORE: ‘Best of the Best’ - top Green Flag Award for 'outstanding' Bailey Hill contribution

If you would like to find out more about the project a drop-in session is being held at the newly refurbished Bailey Hill Centre on Thursday, January 12 between 10am and 3pm. You will have the opportunity to meet Huw, sign up to the project and see some of the tools which will be used as part of the project.

The weekly sessions will start from Thursday, January 19 and will take place in Bailey Hill Park. The project is open to men over the age of 18 years old.

For further information please contact: Jo Lane on baileyhill@moldtowncouncil.org.uk or follow the project on Facebook: @BaileyHillProjectOfficer and twitter: @bh_officer.