Meet CAG Devon Member – ShareShop Tiverton
Back in February, we popped over to Tiverton to visit ShareShop, a project of Sustainable Tiverton. After starting the day at Rerooted Food Surplus Café – another of their brilliant community projects – we headed to ShareShop to see how this “Library of Things” is helping people save money, reduce waste, and share resources. Spoiler alert: it’s amazing!
ShareShop opened in 2024 and sits right in the heart of Tiverton. The idea is simple but powerful: instead of buying something you’ll only use once or twice, you can borrow it. Need a drill for a quick DIY job? A gazebo for a party? Camping gear for a weekend away? ShareShop has you covered. It’s all about making sharing easy and accessible for everyone.
When we visited, Sally Chapman from the Sustainable Tiverton team explained how the project got off the ground. Starting a Library of Things had been a long-held aspiration of Sustainable Tiverton. In 2023, the group was able to establish premises of its own for the first time, thanks to a crowdfunder supported by Devon County Council’s Climate Challenge Fund.
They then started planning and fundraising in earnest, and a National Lottery grant enabled them to employ a part time worker for 12 months, who worked with our volunteers to set up the website, create an online catalogue, and recruit and train volunteers.
ShareShop operates from the Eco Hub at Raymond Penny House in Tiverton town centre and opens every Saturday morning for borrowing and returns. Membership costs just £2 a year, and items can be borrowed for a week at a time for very reasonable prices. With over 200 items listed online, and more being added all the time, it’s a fantastic way to cut down on clutter and carbon emissions.
One of the best parts of our visit was chatting with Tony Donald, a regular volunteer who helps keep everything ticking along. Tony told us:
“At 78, I found myself at home one day wondering what I could do with my life. Then I attended a local U3A meeting where Peter and Catherine from Sustainable Tiverton spoke about their new ShareShop project. It sparked my interest, so went along, signed up and I’ve never looked back! I’ve now been volunteering for 20 months!
Volunteering at the ShareShop has had a positive benefit for me because I feel more confident in dealing with people from all walks of life, some on the spot challenging problem solving, and also some difficult decision making
The things I have enjoyed the most are making new friends, talking to our customers and helping people who have just walked in off the street enquiring about what the ShareShop is all about. I’ve found this project has benefited not only our local community but, also those from a far wider area. Customers have been coming from far beyond Tiverton.”
Volunteers like Tony are the backbone of ShareShop. They check and register donations, lend out items, maintain equipment, and keep the catalogue up to date. There’s a role for everyone, and every helping hand makes a real impact.
ShareShop is part of a global movement of Libraries of Things, and as a member of CAG Devon, it works alongside other similar initiatives such as the the ShareShed, and the Libraries of Things in Exmouth, Topsham, and North Tawton Exmouth, Topsham and North Tawton to champion the “Borrow Don’t Buy” ethos. The more we share, the more we save—on money, resources, and emissions. It’s a practical, community-driven solution to overconsumption, and it’s making a real difference in Tiverton.
Fancy getting involved? Visit www.shareshoptiverton.org.uk to browse the catalogue, email shareshoptiverton@gmail.com if you’d like to volunteer or donate, and follow @shareshoptiverton on Facebook or Instagram.
About Sustainable Tiverton
Sustainable Tiverton is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) whose aims are ‘to energise and support the whole community to take effective action to improve the world around us and our impact on it for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren’. From its beginnings as Sustainable Villages in 2008, it has grown into a multi-project volunteer organisation working across the Tiverton area.
The Projects
Sustainable Tiverton’s projects are all community and volunteer-based, focusing on various aspects of sustainability:
- Food: including beekeeping, sustainable food growing, community apple juicing, and the redistribution of surplus food.
- Share and Repair: repairing household goods, sharing community stores of household items and bikes, and hosting events to pass goods on for re-use.
- Nature and Biodiversity: tree planting, maintaining rural and urban green spaces, and monitoring the environment to combat pollution.
- Community Engagement: encouraging visions of a carbon net-zero community and offering practical solutions through exhibitions, discussions, and outdoor events.
- Energy and Transport: making lower emission transport options available and helping people reduce home energy use.
To learn more about Sustainable Tiverton and its other projects, head to https://sustainabletiverton.org.uk or email info@sustainabletiverton.org.uk.
