The people making a difference: the man setting up woodworking ‘sheds’ to combat loneliness

Philip Jackson at Barnsley Men's Shed. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Philip Jackson left the UK when he was 22 and returned when he was 67. During that time, he had worked in construction in Thailand and Australia. When he retired and returned to his native Barnsley, Jackson felt “like a foreigner” in his own country.

“I had a strong Australian accent, and everyone I knew when I was younger had moved away or was dead.” He was lonely. And he wasn’t the only one. “I’d never seen loneliness like it,” says Jackson. “There were so many lonely old men, in particular.”