North Tawton Repair Café

North Tawton has long been a place where sustainability and community are stitched into the heart of who we are and what we do ensuring this planet is around for future generations to enjoy. The repair café is a community group where you can bring your broken things to be fixed, meet people and maybe even learn some new skills.

Under the Umbrella of the repair café, we have the Library of Things, the everyday Treasure Chest mini scrap store and borrow a bag project.

Library of Things

The idea of the Library of Things is we offer a wide range of items available for the public to borrow including power tools, hand tools, household and leisure items.  It only costs £5.00 per year and you can borrow as many things you need throughout the year.

It’s hoped that, by sharing the things we use only now and then, we can help people to save money, connect people to the local community and increase awareness around consumerism and waste. We have 120 members, 180 items and have completed 249 loans.

Everyday Treasure Chest mini scrap store

A place where you can pick-up fabric, cards, paper yarn, paint and craft stuff. Which is left over from projects that would have gone into landfill.

Borrow a bag project

The Repair Café and Library of Things, where our ethos being to repair, repurpose and ignite people’s enthusiasm to create a sustainable environment is where the ‘Borrow a Bag’ idea was conceived. The bags are made from fabric destined for landfill e.g. old curtains & bedding. Volunteers created the ‘Borrow a Bag’ you see today. The ‘Borrow a Bag’ is distributed to the local shops in North Tawton. If you require a bag when you are shopping, just ask for our ‘Borrow a Bag’. The idea being that the bag is then returned to any of the shops participating in this scheme. However, if you love the bag so much, it can be kept, washed & reused. If it requires repair, then pop along to the Repair Café where it can be mended.

Not only is the ‘Borrow a Bag’ good for the environment but it benefits the local economy too! At the last count we have put over 100 bags into the local shops.