Rehmat Esmail is painstakingly threading tiny turquoise and silver beads onto an intricate American Indian necklace, while Chris Walmsley passes her the next piece.

The ladies are among a dozen or so volunteers at the new Harrogate Repair Cafe using their skills to help prolong the life of a diverse selection of objects, from jewellery and bags, games consoles and lamps, to vacuum cleaners, coffee machines and even a lawnmower.

The hall at the Friends Meeting House is bustling with activity as volunteers sew, darn, rethread, rewire, solder and tinker. There’s lots of rootling through tool boxes and plastic tubs for that one replacement rivet, hinge, clasp or switch that will revert a landfill candidate back to its useful or sentimental purpose.

The necklace being repaired by Rehmat and Chris belongs to Jenny Gardner and is a cherished piece that broke a few years ago. Jenny said:

Chris and Rehmat are former nurses who began jewellery making as a hobby after they retired in 2016. Largely self-taught, they now teach classes to others and make jewellery to raise money for charity. Chris said:

A growing movement

The first of its kind in the district, the Harrogate Repair Cafe launched last month and is part of a growing international movement aimed at reducing the impact of waste and a throwaway society.

Items brought in tend to be of sentimental value or costly to replace. Others require a simple fix but their owners don’t have the knowledge or ability to do it. Some people simply don’t believe in throwing things away. If something can’t be mended immediately or needs a part that’s not available on the day, it is taken away for repair and brought back to the next session for collection.

Every item is logged with the Repair Café International Foundation’s monitoring website that tracks the products received, the issue and the outcome, successful or not. The aim is to collect data and insight that might lead to the manufacture of products more suited to the circular economy.

At the Harrogate Repair Cafe, a queue is forming. Among those waiting are Ann and Chris Brackley. They have brought three items, a log bag with broken stitching on the handle, a wall-mounted candleholder missing a rivet, and a bell that belonged to Ann’s grandparents and was broken by her grandson, who somehow managed to undo the clapper bell. Chris said:

"I don't like waste"

Wooden items are directed to Chris Rive. Last month he repaired a jewellery box given to the elderly owner by her late husband. It was a simple fix of a broken catch and a loose mirror, but Chris was aware of the responsibility of doing something that meant so much. Today, he has repaired a statue and cut down the legs of a computer table. He said:

Over at the textiles section, Angela Sansom is darning two cashmere jumpers that have holes under the arms. They are well worn but worth saving because of the cost of replacing them. She said:

Volunteer Zoanne Garner is mending the handle of a tote bag. As a mother of four children who "really get through things", she likes the self-sufficiency that comes with repairing items. She is using the skills that she remembers from her grandparents:

Empowering people

Another textiles volunteer has just repaired some trousers and is showing the owner how to sew a button on. It’s typical of the repairers here that they explain what they are doing and how the item can be fixed again in future.

It’s all about empowering people to mend their own stuff, said William Sanders, a Harrogate resident who set up the repair cafe last month, after volunteering at the Horsforth and Meanwood one. It’s also a chance for volunteers to use their skills in a constructive way.

At the far end of the hall, in the electronics section, Ian Oliver is examining the base of a lamp. Jasper Minton-Taylor had taken it to two local lighting shops but was told they didn’t do repairs. He said:

Ian, a regular volunteer at the Horsforth and Meanwood Repair Cafe, identifies the issue and gets to work replacing the switch from his box of spares. A retired engineer with a degree in computer science, he enjoys using his skillset to help repair items. Many are straightforward fixes such as broken USB connectors, but last month he spent over an hour replacing a tiny 2mm resister on an amplifier.

Also on the electronics team is Richard Holmes. His hobby is fixing computers, but he chips in where he can, mending items such as a vacuum cleaner, gaming controller and solar-powered garden lights.

He said the Right to Repair legislation, introduced in July 2021 obliging manufacturers to make repair information and spare parts available for white goods and televisions, was vitally important. He added:

The Harrogate Repair Café runs at the Friends Meeting House from 12pm to 4pm on the third Saturday of each month.