THERE may be no place like home but for many men, it seems, there is no place quite like a shed when it comes to his health and happiness.

The National ShedFest 2018 was held at Worcester Arena in Hylton Road on Saturday, the first time it has taken place in the city. More than 200 people, men and women, travelled from as far away as Scotland, the south west and Wales to be there.

There were workshops, stalls and displays of some of the craft skills honed in some of the hundreds of sheds now burgeoning across the UK in a movement rapidly gaining momentum.

There can be few better indicators of the benefits of ‘sheds’ - viewed as communities for mental health and wellbeing - than the presence of Martin Tod, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum who described sheds ‘as a really safe environment for people to open up if they want to.’

Nathan Sarea who created the first ShedFest in Denbigh, North Wales and is chairman of the board of the UK Men’s Sheds Association, also extolled the physical and mental health benefits of the shed including what he called the ‘camaraderie of shared experience.’

He said: “It becomes your life. It gives so many people so much on so many levels which have been lost in society.”

In particular he said the shedder community could help in the fight against loneliness and isolation which he believes has been brought about to some extent by technology and the breakdown of communities.

Mr Sarea said he was himself an ‘isolated professional’ and was really suffering with his mental health because of both isolation and stress when he developed the idea.

The UK Men’s Sheds Association says the phenomenon has led to an 89 per cent decrease in depression, a 75 per cent reduction in anxiety and a £10.5 million boost in terms of ‘shedders’ volunteering to the support their local community.