The Dusty Shed team has been busy creating a new set of Community Library Boxes for St. Fagans Community Council. The council has commissioned six boxes in total, which will be installed across the village to give local people an easy, free way to share books, discover new reads, and enjoy a simple community resource on their doorstep.
So far, two boxes have been completed, with the remaining four currently in progress. Each one has been carefully made by the team to be sturdy, practical and welcoming.
The idea behind the Library Boxes is about much more than just books. In a community as geographically spread out as St Fagans, they offer a way to increase access to reading while also creating small spaces where neighbours might take some time to not only add books, but to also chat and connect with neighbours. The hope is that people will value them as part of everyday community life. As Aneka Rao, of St. Fagans Community Council says,“It's just a nice thing to have in a community and we hope people will use it and love it. If they're popular, we'd like to build more boxes to share seeds, toys, and other things.”
The plan is that the first box is expected to be placed at the entrance to Westfield Park, a well-used local green space, with others planned for different parts of the St. Fagans area depending on local interest. The aim is to have boxes spread across the community so that each estate can benefit from easy access. paragraph here
St. Fagans Community Council chose to work with Dusty Shed because they “wanted the project to have a strong community feel from the start” Aneka says, seeing “an opportunity to collaborate with another local community group and create something with real care and purpose. It also made the project a good fit for the Dusty Shed team, offering a hands-on piece of work that would make a visible difference in the local area.”
The Dusty Shed have built the boxes to be waterproof, coated with fire-retardant paint, and mounted on treated posts so they are ready for outdoor use in all weathers. “The finished boxes are solid, attractive and built to last” says Aneka.
This project is a great example of communities working together to create something simple, useful and welcoming. We look forward to seeing the boxes installed and, hopefully, filled with books that will be shared and enjoyed by local residents for years to come.