Well, it's happened at last! Our dream has come true!
On Saturday 28th March, the Derwent Room at the lovely Chain Lane Community Hub was lined with tables behind which sat people with tools and equipment, repairing things and discussing with the owners what they were doing or why the damaged things were important to them, a bit like Antiques Roadshow, but without the focus on the price the object might be worth! Others were meeting or catching up with others over tea and cake… there was a real buzz in the place.
Repairs of all kinds of things were going on: jewellery, torn clothing, electricals, tangled wind chimes, radios, table lamps, headphones, clocks, toys....you name it! Basically, you take your broken stuff along. If there's a queue, you can get a cuppa and a slice of cake or a biscuit and wait until the appropriate repairer is free to look at your broken item. The Repair Café movement is a great idea which is catching on around the country: as well as fixing objects, repairing means less waste and less buying of new stuff, which all helps us get to a better future where we are not trashing our planet. We are in a climate emergency, so we all need to do all we can to save resources; as was said during wartime emergencies – “Make do and mend”.
As well as undertaking the actual repairs, the repairers explain what the repair will involve and how it will be carried out, so visitors can see the skills at first hand. Many of us have lost or never known these crucial skills because we've all been encouraged to be 'consumers' and buy the latest product and throw stuff away rather than have it mended. That really must change because we are extracting too much from our beleaguered Earth. For large items like dishwashers or cookers, I can recommend Abbey Electrical, who do a great job - also on Chain Lane.
So a huge Welcome to the Repair Cafe from all of us in Knaresborough - we are truly delighted you've answered our SOS call (save our stuff)!
Shan Oakes
Coordinator, Knaresborough and Harrogate Friends of the Earth 
Additional Note from Christine Hall, one of the directors of the Harrogate Repair Café:
The team received 29 items to repair in 1.5 hours and successfully repaired 12. It doesn’t sound that much, but the owners of a further 8 items were advised where to get hold of a replacement part, and they will be back at a future session for the fixers to complete the repairs. So we’ve saved 20 items from landfill, just at that session alone. The remaining items were deemed “end of life”, and in the main, the owners were satisfied that they’d been given a second chance before being thrown away or taken to the recycling centre.
Overall, the Harrogate Repair Café has completed 468 successful repairs and given advice / partially repaired a further 162 items. All that in just under 2 years!