Since it first opened its doors last Spring, Borrow It has now made over one hundred loans to almost fifty individuals. From carpet cleaners to hedge trimmers, sleeping bags to ice-cream makers, Borrow It has lent numerous items to local residents and community groups.

Borrow It: A Library of Things is open to all residents local to Bath. It is run by Time Bank Plus and funded by a grant from Bath & West Community Energy. There is no charge for borrowing items, though small donations are welcome.

Viv Talbot, Manager at Time Bank Plus explains that, “In order to borrow items, people simply need to pop along to the office with some ID and register their details. They are then free to borrow anything they need for up to a week, or longer by arrangement.”

The concept & model for Borrow It came from the inspiring SHARE project, a similar initiative which is based in Frome. SHARE also kindly donated the first few items to the Borrow It collection. Since then, local people have donated over 120 items to the scheme. The project has a growing number of registered members as more people find out about it.

“We have had really positive feedback from the local community, and members really appreciate having access to items that they might only use once or twice a year. The carpet cleaners have been really popular this winter, and we are expecting to receive more requests for lawn mowers and hedge trimmers as the weather warms up”, anticipates Project Coordinator, Rowan Wynne-Jones.

Borrow It member, Richard benefitted from the scheme when his lawn mower stopped working, and he was also able to help his neighbour. “The mower has been really useful. My neighbour’s mower broke the same week, so I was able to cut their grass at the same time,” he explained.

100th Borrow It loan: Debbie borrowing gardening tools.

If you are interested in becoming a member of Borrow It, contact the Time Bank Office, on 01225 442813, by emailing: timebankplus@googlemail.com, or drop into the office at, 86 High Street, Twerton, Bath, BA2 1DE. The opening hours are: Monday, Tuesday 10am – 4pm, and Wednesday 10am-7pm.

Visit : Borrow It Catalogue to view the latest catalogue of items available to borrow, as well as the project’s ‘wish-list’ of items.

We hosted a weekly creative crafts session.

Whether you'd like to have a go at willow weaving, mosaic making, crochet & knitting, fermented foods & chutneys, card making, sewing, soap making, flower arranging, cake decorating, felting or making your own cosmetics,  we'll try and make it happen.

Email us for more info at timebankplus@googlemail.com or call us on 01225 442183.

Growing Together is a community project that will provide free training and support to families and individuals who would like to grow their own food at home or in a shared allotment. An experienced tutor will help train people in the necessary skills to successfully grow and harvest their own fresh and delicious produce.  The project will also run a Buddy Scheme to connect local people together, thus enabling them to give and receive mutual ongoing support with growing, harvesting and sharing produce.

We are holding a launch event on Saturday 27th Feb at 2:30pm on our allotment at Bath City Farm.  We are inviting anyone who would like to find out more about the project to join us for "Food, Fun and Campfire Cooking".

From early March, we will meet every Tuesday at the Bath City Farm allotments from 1:30-3:30pm.    It is open to anyone at any skill level, and will be a welcoming environment.  A gardening mentor will also be available to meet people at their own gardens at other times by appointment, to offer help, guidance and encouragement.

Last week, on a cold winter Sunday, 14 amazing volunteers spent the day transforming a small area of neglected wasteground in Twerton into a fruitful community garden. We cleared brambles and nettles, cut the grass, dug out flower beds, collected about 8 bin bags of rubbish and planted soft fruit bushes and other plants, all of which had been donated to us.

At lunchtime, we warmed up at the Time Bank office with hot soup and tasty vegetable stew prepared by some of the volunteers.

We made and painted a wooden sign - and Hanna Close Community Garden came into existence. This is a space for the local community, where anyone passing by or living in the local area can get involved or help themselves to the odd raspberry, apple or globe artichoke.

Bath Guerrilla Gardeners were actively involved with this project and have created several other beautiful community growing spaces throughout the city.

Our 10th Anniversary Celebration this August was attended by well over sixty Time Bank volunteers and supporters. The weather was warm and dry so many people opted to sit outside in the lovely Rose Cottage garden and perhaps have a go at scarf juggling, diabolo or other fun circus skills activities led by Claire.

Inside, we were entertained by two members of the U3A Swing Band; some people couldn't resist singing along to the well known jazz standards and popular music from the sixties.

Everyone enjoyed the delicious home-baked cream teas, prepared and served by our volunteers.

We were delighted that Sarah Bird, who set up the Time Bank 10 years ago and has now become CEO of Timebanking UK, was able to attend.

All photos courtesy of Time Bank member and amazing photographer, Tony McNichol

This was a development from last year’s micro exhibition in Foxhill Point. A portion of a small grant from B&NES Arts Development Team was used to finance this year’s large scale exhibition (along with a contribution from the CURO grant for the festival).
It was held in the Exhibition Room of Bath Central Library. This was a partnership initiative with Arty Buddies and B&NES Library Service and was an opportunity to showcase art works produced in Foxhill in the centre of the city.
Arty Buddies is an organisation that runs art groups established in Bath &NES communities and is supported by Time Bank Plus. The Foxhill group meets on Tuesday mornings at the small community building ‘Foxhill Point’ which is the former laundry for Dunster House (a block of flats in the centre of the Foxhill estate).

• The art exhibition itself was held for seven days from Monday 1st June to Sunday 7th June
• The art exhibition opening event was held between 5pm and 6.15pm on Monday 1st June. The exhibition was opened by Cherry Beath, the Mayor of Bath.
The most senior contributor to the exhibition was Margery Crocker who is in her hundredth year and had never drawn before joining the art group at Foxhill.

The exhibition opening went with a buzz and was enjoyed by all. During the week the exhibition had a steady flow of visitors with some lovely comments in the visitor’s book. The most frequently appearing word was ‘inspiring’.
A small selection of comments are shown below:
‘Very inspiring exhibition’
‘Inspiring and wonderful. Hopefully community art will flourish again’
‘Amazing and inspiring’
‘Wonderful and such a friendly group. Well done!’
‘Excellent exhibition. Really effective and affecting. Thanks for sharing your art.’
‘Beautiful work – colourful and inspiring.’
‘Excellent, some of the paintings were very moving.’
‘Most vibrant, adventurous, colourful and inspiring’
‘Brilliant exhibition. Well done everyone.’
‘Love the colours – what a high standard!’
‘Fantastic work! Beautifully presented too.’
‘Wow, so much work and detail makes this a very special set of pictures to view. Thank you.’
We also amassed quite a collection of visitor’s contributions both sketches and ‘word images’.
Tis exhibition will be going 'on tour' so watch out for it if you missed it during the Foxhill Festival.