Some of the ball runs constructed by Bordon Men’s Shed have been installed on-site at Bird World:

This spiral ball run is on trial by Bird World staff before being installed for public use. There is also a bagatelle that has been delivered, and another ball run is under construction.

Listen to BBC Radio Surrey at 7.20 am on Thursday 13th August for an interview with the Secretary of Bordon Men’s Shed, Clive Handy and James Robson of Bird World Farnham, discussing the building of ‘Ball Runs’ and other games to keep children amused during visits to the attraction near Wrecclesham.

Our guys working hard on the Bird World project

Thanks to anyone who turned up for the official opening of the Bordon Men’s Shed today 18th July. It was attended by Mayor Cllr Leeroy Scott, who performed the opening and cutting of the ribbon, supported by District County Councillor Andy Tree.

There were Bordon Men’s Shed members who attended, plus some wives and children.

Anyone who would like to join the Men’s Shed please visit bordonmensshed.com where you will find an application form and contact details. The Men’s Shed is situated behind the Phoenix Theatre in Station Road. We are also on Facebook as Bordon Men’s Shed.

The Men’s Shed was given some lengths of huge railway sleepers. These were fashioned into planters placed on either side of the entrance door to the workshop. After much hard work and some expenses from the Men’s Shed, a member’s wife populated the planters with an array of plants which will enhance the entrance.

Many Thanks to Fran for all her hard work in making the shed look great.

The Bordon Men’s Shed project to supply ‘ball runs’ and other games to Bird World took another step forward today with the delivery of five games, the first of a further batch which will be delivered in due course.

After transporting the games to Bird World, Martin, the head groundsman, took over the installation of them from the Men’s Shed, saying it would take time to appraise the places where they should go and preparation of the sites would take most of the day. The Men’s Shed guys were then relieved of the task of installing the ball runs and could go back to doing other jobs at the Men’s Shed headquarters behind the Phoenix theatre. One of those jobs was to clear our previous wood store for the theatre to use as a changing room for the rising star weekend on 1st and 2nd August. This was achieved without too much trouble.

This is the zig-zag ball run constructed by Ted Wood of our team, seen in the delivery entrance of Bird World, ready for their team to install. Other ball runs were 3-metre lengths of ball run for the cork balls to run down; the same balls will be used on the zig-zag run. There is also a bagatelle and a balancing game. Pictures of these will be added later.

The Bird World team is happy about the games delivered so far, and we hope to complete more games before too long.

The Bird World Project has been selected to build ‘ball runs’ to keep customers amused during visits to the attraction and is keeping the Bordon Men’s Shed busy.

James Robson of Bird World contacted Bordon Men’s Shed with a view to constructing up to 18 ‘ball runs’ to be installed alongside bird displays and enclosures. We are well on the way with constructing long ball runs to place alongside the displays, including a bagatelle game and a gimballed game using cork balls. Other games will follow:

This is a steam bender, used to bend thin materials around a curved edge, in this case for the bagatelle game.

Long Runs under construction

We hope to construct 5 ball runs for dispatch within the next couple of weeks, and some more to follow later. Some ideas have been gleaned from other sites:

It will be all hands to the pump to construct the ball runs and hopefully keep the younger customers of Bird World happy during their visit.

Here are typical ball runs, and we hope ours can be as good as these

News

Are you sitting comfortably? Bordon Men’s Shed gives Kingsley Centre a helping hand

By Paul Ferguson  |   Chief reporter   |

Tuesday 19th May 2026 11:00 am

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Kingsley Centre members try out the planter-seat construction made by Bordon Mens Shed member, Ted Wood.(Clive Handy)

A benchmark has been set as a relationship is blossoming between a group of Bordon handymen and volunteers at a nearby community centre.

A Bordon Mens Shed (BMS) member has made a blooming wonderful gesture as he’s rustled up some planters and a seat for the Kingsley Centre.

After receiving the request Ted Wood built the features out of reclaimed pallet wood.

He also bought some materials for the project with the centre providing paint and preservative to match the arch already in place.

“The Kingsley Centre were thrilled with the result and thanked the men’s shed, and especially Ted, for the hard work put into the construction,” said BMS secretary, Clive Handy. For more details about the group visit www.bordonmensshed.com

Today the Bordon Mens Shed delivered planters and seat to Kingsley Community Centre after they requested one to be built by us.

Consequently one of our members, Ted Wood, built the two planters and adjoining seat out of reclaimed pallet wood and some bought materials. Kingsley provided paint and preservative to match the arch already in place.

This is what it looked like before delivery:

Kingsley Community Centre were thrilled with the result, and thanked Bordon Men’s Shed, especially Ted for the hard work put in to the construction.

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The Bordon Men’s Shed was invited to Here’s Headley by Jo Smith, thanks Jo, and so we set up on the field next to the pavilion, which was being officially opened by the local MP Gregg Stafford, to celebrate the multi-thousand-pound refurbishment of the pavilion.

We were directed to our allotted position on the field, amongst some 40 stands of various clubs and merchandise stalls. We displayed our wares on tables and waited for the punters to come and buy our stuff.

Several of the members of the Bordon Men’s Shed turned up to man the stall, including: Jim, ted, John, Theo, Ted, Reg and Clive. We sold over £100 of wooden objects all hand made by the above, including boot pullers, truggs, chopping boards, trivetts, carrying bg handles and other bits and pieces. All together a very succesful operation.

The local MP Gregg Stafford with our stall.

The Bordon Men’s Shed is open most days and is situated behind the Phoenix Theatre in Station Road. We gave out applications for membership at the show and are ready to accept new members.