In December 2024 The RWB Shed was contacted by Claire, the leader of Lyneham Scout group.
She had a request as to whether The RWB Shed might be able to help the scout group to produce 10 bat boxes. These need to be completed before the end of June 2025 for the group to participate in the production towards their Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.
As I was a resident of Lyneham village, it made sense for me to be the liaison between the scout group and The RWB Shed and took on the project .
After the festive season I had cause to contact the scout group to discuss the fact that as we had only recently taken in our new residence, the work required to become operational was still ongoing, so therefore we were unable to start the project until the earliest end of February when we hoped to at least have some semblance of a functioning workshop.
Having met and discussed the needs of the scout group they were advised they would have to reconsider the bat boxes, as where they were to be located would not be suitable, as bats would be unlikely to take up the offer of a new home. After some reflection and further meetings, it was decided that nest boxes would be more appropriate, but by this time it was now well into the month of April, so time was becoming a factor.
Now we had the template for the boxes and eventually suitable wood became available. All that was needed now were some willing shed members to form a small production team to build the boxes.
Over the next few weeks whilst still setting up the new RWB Shed workshop, the team slowly started to produce components which we could fully assemble into recognisable nest boxes.
The agreed plan was to produce the appropriate components, screw the components into finished nestboxes and then disassemble each box so that the disassembly could be kept together to ensure it would all fit back together for the scouts to have fun and the satisfaction of building a complete nest box.
The Shed members would then take the kits, along with the necessary tools and fixings, and provide supervision for each team in the assembly of each kit.
On 25th June 2025, Theo, Kay and myself Graham, provided the scout members with assistance where required to build the nest boxes. It was quite apparent that everyone enjoyed themselves in completing the task.
Sincere thanks was expressed from the scout leader and the scouts for our services.
Hopefully this will help them with their Duke of Edinburgh award.
On a personal note, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all members of the shed who had a part in the manufacturing and production of the nest boxes, which goes to show good things happen when you work as a consolidated team.
Author: Graham Wakeling
