The Twickenham Repair Café, which is a champion of the 'make do and mend revolution', celebrates its first anniversary this weekend.

A team of volunteers has brought hundreds of items that might have been thrown out back to life over the past year.

The initiative was the brainchild of six locals, who knew each other from going to the same church and gathered for regular breakfast meetings while they worked from home during the pandemic.

Now the Repair Café is a thriving hub of expertise and advice, which is held on the third Saturday of each month at St Margarets' Church, East Twickenham, where locals queue for help.

The next event takes place on Saturday, January 21, and runs from 10.30am to 1.30pm.

It has become a beacon for support and advice for families who do not have the skills themselves to return old and broken items to use. While a Kids Zone has been introduced to ensure the repair and reuse philosophy is passed on to the next generation.

The repair team has grown to more than 30, who have expertise in fixing clothes and textiles, household and garden electrical items, electronics and radios, bikes, ceramics, computers and games consoles, clocks, toys, upholstery and furniture, woodwork, tools and many more.

One of the founders, Colin Messenger, said: "Vast amounts of stuff gets thrown away and many people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves. 

"Changing mindsets can kindle people's enthusiasm for a more sustainable society and show people how much fun repairing can be.

"The way the Cafe works is that people will bring along their broken items from home and a volunteer will, not only repair the item (hopefully), but, share their skills to give people the confidence to do their own repairs in the future."

The range of skills on offer is extraordinary with team able to fix everything from a Star Wars lightsaber to an antique clock.

Success stories include:

*A clock dating back to 1900 where the owner had not heard it chime since she was a little girl in Australia in the 1940s.

* A coffee grinder given as a special gift which had not worked for years after some children had attempted to use it.

* An electric scooter which became useless following two punctures which local shops were not interested in repairing.

* The broken clasp on an exclusive Mulberry bag was successfully replaced.

* A much-loved 80 year old sewing machine was fully repaired.