Once upon a time, mending was simply what you did. A loose button was sewn back on, a kettle coaxed into life, a chair tightened rather than thrown away. Repair was ordinary, neighbourly, and quietly skilled. Somewhere along the way, we forgot.

Over the past fifteen years, that instinct has been finding its way back — and not just here in the Forest.

In 2009, in Amsterdam, a Dutch journalist called Martine Postma set up the first Repair Café. Her idea was simple: bring people together in a friendly space where broken items could be repaired with the help of volunteers, and where skills could be shared over tea rather than invoices. The idea struck a chord almost immediately.

Since then, Repair Cafés — often called Mend and Repair Cafés in the UK — have spread across the world. There are now thousands of them, meeting in village halls, libraries, churches and community centres in over forty countries. They are loosely linked through an international foundation which offers support and encouragement, but each café remains firmly local, shaped by the people who run it and the community it serves.

What links them all is not organisation, but spirit.

A Mend and Repair Café is not a shop, and it is not a service. It is a conversation. People arrive with torn clothes, wobbly lamps, reluctant toasters or broken toys. Volunteers bring tools, experience and patience — and a willingness to say, “Let’s have a look.” Sometimes things are fixed; sometimes they aren’t. Either way, something else always happens: confidence grows, skills are passed on, and people leave knowing a little more than when they arrived.

There is something quietly radical about mending together. Repair Cafés challenge the idea that everything is disposable, that repair is mysterious or only for experts, or that it is easier to replace than to fix. Around the world, they have become part of a wider Right to Repair movement, which argues that products should be designed to last longer and to be repairable, and that ordinary people should be allowed — and encouraged — to mend what they own.

Here in the UK, Mend and Repair Cafés have flourished in exactly the places you would expect: parish halls, churches and community spaces — places where people already gather and look out for one another. What is happening in Ruspidge, Newent and Yorkley is part of that same story: local, practical, welcoming — and quietly connected to something much bigger.

Perhaps the most important repairs are not always the obvious ones. Yes, a zip is replaced, a plug rewired, a seam stitched. But at the same time, something else is mended: confidence, connection, and the simple belief that not everything broken needs to be thrown away.

One kettle, one chair, one conversation at a time.

Take time out for a visit to your local Mend and Repair Café

Yorkley 11am–1.30pm, second Saturday of the month Yorkley Community Centre, GL15 4RS

Ruspidge 2-4pm, third Saturday of the month Ruspidge Memorial Hall, GL14 3AE

Newent 10am–1.00pm, third Saturday of the month Newent Memorial Hall, GL18 1PT