A POPULAR YouTuber who has more than 12 million subscribers on his channel has shown his support for a new community workshop in Northwich.

Inventor Colin Furze – who has become an online hit for his wacky projects and epic challenges – is getting involved with Northwich Makerspace, designed to help people 'learn, share, experiment and create'.

Cheshire businessman Jonathan Shone, of Shadow Foam Ltd in Northwich, dreamt of creating this unique space and its now well underway.

He explained: “There are a few operations like this around the country but we’re very much going to bring an inclusive, vibrant and innovative feel to this community workshop.

“We’ve been gutted to see the closing of three fantastic, established local businesses in the past month.

“The Seafarer and Hormbery’s are a huge loss to the area after so many years in business.

“As is the closing of our neighbors, Northwich Antique Centre, from where we’ve created many an upcycling or re-purposing project, and only recently made a YouTube video with them in there.

Northwich Guardian:

“We feel that Northwich Makerspace is the positive story and injection of support for grass-roots and start-up creative enterprises that our area could really use right now.

“We are going to see people making new friends and acquiring new skills here, taking on projects that they may never have been able to dream of at home or on their own, as well as supporting people in starting new enterprises, expanding on side-hustles or even forging entirely new career paths.

“It can be a sanctuary, an escape from the stresses of real life or a respite from loneliness to some, whilst being a creative network and hive of activity for others.” 

The Northwich Makerspace idea was put on hold originally due to the pandemic but was resurrected again a couple of months ago when the ideal unit on Cosgrove Business Park in Anderton became available.

The social enterprise had so far been funded by Jonathan alone, supported by a well-backed crowd-funder campaign where locals and businesses pledged donations and reserved memberships.

Northwich Guardian: YouTuber Colin Furze and Northwich’s Jonathan Shone join forces YouTuber Colin Furze and Northwich’s Jonathan Shone join forces (Image: Supplied by Shadow Foam)

And now Northwich Makerspace has the backing of Colin Furze, and is set to benefit from his ‘unique energy and ideas’.

Colin said: “It’s such a great idea.

“My wife and I have discussed doing something similar in our home town of Stamford (Lincolnshire).

“We had even found an appropriate location, but sadly due to Covid had to park the idea.

“So we’re really happy to support Jonathan in the Northwich Makerspace as proof of concept, then hopefully it’s something that we can look together at, with a view to rolling out elsewhere in the future too.”

With Furze now firmly on-board supporting Jonathan and the team, the energy and buzz about the facility is starting to build.

The project has already surpassed its minimum number of required memberships to make the project viable, and with the pace of work continuing to escalate as we head towards the end of the year, a new year opening for the facility is still ‘very much on the cards’.