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Free:
Ancient laptop (Caldecott OX14)
If you just want a spare laptop to answer emails and use websites, this would do for you, or as a schoolchild's first laptop. It's been wiped and reset. It runs on Windows XP (!) so not supported any more; battery and broadband work fine, and it has an old (not Microsoft) spreadsheet and word processor, though you'd probably want to use e.g. Google suite if doing anything demanding. Given the ancient operating system you should probably install anti-virus/security software.
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Free:
decorative self-adhesive border (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Roll of unused self-adhesive cream-coloured paper for a wall, with a curly beige pattern. 5 m long, 13 cm wide.
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2h
Free:
Shrubs: cotoneaster (Caldecott OX14)
Cotoneaster that grows tall, up to 2 m, with small leaves. It flowers early in spring and attracts bumble bees with its barely noticeable flowers. Prune it after that (March-April) if you want it not to grow too tall. In autumn the leaves go orange and it has masses of red berries that feed birds or drop everywhere and self-seed, which is why I have three of them, about 60 cm tall, to give away.
3h
Free:
Shrub: red dogwood (Cornus) (Caldecott OX14)
Cornus with dark red stems, currently about 1 m high. It grows fast, up to a couple of metres, and can be pruned right back (even to ground level if you want) in late spring to give fresh crimson stems that look great in winter. It has creamy flowers in May. It's in a pot that I want to keep, so I'll give it to you in a bag; plant it in a pot or the ground fairly soon, give it a good watering and cut it back a bit and it'll be fine.
3h
Free:
curtain sliders/hooks, small, medium and large (Caldecott OX14)
The sort that slide along the outside of a plastic track. Three sizes (see pictures) - only a handful of the largest ones. Let me know which size you want.
3h
Free:
Curtain Hooks (Caldecott OX14)
The sort that fit inside a plastic track
3h
Free:
decorative self-adhesive border (Caldecott OX14)
Roll of unused self-adhesive cream-coloured paper for a wall, with a curly beige pattern. 5 m long, 13 cm wide. Might be good for children's crafts?
3h
Free:
Ventilator cover (Caldecott OX14)
Louvred gas ventilator for wall, unused and still in packaging, 6 x 9 inches
3h
Free:
Old cordless phone (Caldecott OX14)
Still works if paired with a base set, or, I think, on its own on an old landline (not with new BT Digital Voice connections). Or maybe if you need a prop for a drama set in the 80s or 90s?
3h
Free:
rosemary cuttings for growing or cooking (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
I'm about to clip a gigantic rosemary plant and will have far more prunings than I can use. If you would like some to grow on, or to dry for culinary use, let me know how much you need and I'll save it for you. (I've put 1 quantity of 10 just to say that there will be enough for lots of people - I have enough to give everybody a huge bunch if you want it!)
308d
Free:
Wooden panel from shed (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
150 x 77 cm Made of tongue-and-groove slats with a sturdy frame around three sides, but the bottom was cut off (rotten) and one top corner is slightly damaged too (see photo). One side could do with a scrub/paint, the other side is perfect. Useful for e.g. blocking a gate, or take it apart to use the slats. If you don't have suitable transport and don't want it in one piece, we might be able to take it apart into suitable-sized pieces for you with minimal damage.
313d
Free:
Wall hanging baskets (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
Somewhat rusty wire baskets for outside walls. They each have two little hooks to hang off screws in a wall.
313d
Free:
cracked glass aquarium (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
60 x 33 x 33 cm Acquired years ago from a kind Freegler and used in the garden ever since, but now surplus to requirements. At some point it cracked in the cold on a bottom corner (see photo - I can test it for watertightness later, if you like, but probably not a good idea to fill it with water and fish and keep it above a priceless handknotted silk rug) and it also has a small chip on a top corner. Heavy!
313d
Free:
Curtain hooks and rings (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Jars of plastic curtain hooks, various types, curtain hangers and three sets of different-sized curtain rings for plastic Swish-type curtain rails - see image for sizes. Take them all or just one set [one set now taken, the middle-sized ones].
364d
Free:
ADSL filter (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
If anyone still needs one or more of these...
1y
Free:
Old cordless phone (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Still works if paired with a base set, or, I think, on its own on an old landline (not with new BT Digital Voice connections). Or maybe if you need a prop for a drama set in the 80s or 90s?
1y
Free:
Ventilator cover (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Louvred gas ventilator for wall, unused and still in packaging, 6 x 9 inches
1y
Free:
large plastic storage box (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
Pink storage box with a lid - lid and box are both cracked from sun damage on one corner (see photos), but still usable. Size 60 x 40 x 30 cm.
1y
Free:
Pencils (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
15 pencils, from 11 to 18 cm, mostly HB. Fed up with handing pencils out to your students and never getting them back? These might help!
1y
1y
Free:
Extension lead for old telephone (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Works with old landlines, but not with the newer Digital Voice lines that BT has converted us to.
1y
Free:
Wood-framed single-glazed windows (cold frames?) (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Three large rectangular windows, originally from a greenhouse, with hinges at one end. Each 111 x 70 cm. They would make nice cold frame tops. They need repainting/staining, one needs minor woodwork repairs and one (the top one in the picture) has paint on the glass. Take one, two or all of them.
1y
Free:
Greenhouse staging (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Two large wooden trapezoidal slatted shelves originally from an octagonal greenhouse. You could also reverse them to make a right-angled unit about 1.75 m on a side. See images for measurements. There are also four brackets (slightly rusty domestic shelf brackets) if you like.
1y
Free:
Vice for workbench (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
Small vice for fixing to a workbench (nuts and bolts included). It's covered in surface rust after being left in an outbuilding for years, but the slide is oiled and works smoothly. On the other hand, the fixing bolts have seized, but will surely come loose if squirted with WD40 and tapped with a hammer, and even if not you'll just have the bolts standing proud of the base.
1y
Free:
Bag of plastic bottle tops for crafts (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Collected for a charity that no longer wants them! Can anybody use a lot of bottle tops for some craft project? Mostly made of polythene/polypropene, I think. Mixed sizes and colours.
1y
Free:
Wooden greenhouse, needs repair (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Octagonal wooden greenhouse (note that I first offered this a couple of years ago but life events got in the way; my apologies to the people who contacted me then - I am definitely taking it down this weekend, though!). It's in a poor state. The bottom has rotted and it's leaned out of true, sticking some of the windows shut and forcing others permanently open (see photos). When reassembled I think it would be easy enough to return everything to right angles, but you would need some carpentry skills to make good the bottom of each panel, and there's no base (or only fragments) so you'd need paving stones. There are nine panels altogether, one just wood i.e. whole without a window, one spare with a cracked window. The door is the most damaged part, though currently held together with scrap wood. Width when assembled is 1m90, height ~2m60 (including the finial at the top); for transport, the longest panels are 1m85. (I might be able to help with this if our schedules match.)
1y
Free:
landline telephone handset (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Cream (once white!) phone handset, worked fine on our old landline but is no good if you've been switched to the new BT VoIP line. Might be useful as a prop for the theatre, or for children to play with?
1y
Free:
Electric hedge trimmer for parts (Caldecott OX14)
Expired
Before I take this to the tip: a Black & Decker hedge trimmer, about 17 years old, regularly cleaned and sharpened, but now the motor, while it still runs, is no longer connecting to the blade (gears slipping?). A clever person might be able to fix it or strip it for parts for a similar old trimmer.
1y
Free:
Passionflower vines (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
Passiflora caerulea vines, still quite small, but can grow and climb fast! They're fine outside except in a very cold winter, but should be OK if planted in a sheltered spot e.g. near a wall. Pretty blue and white flowers and golden fruits (theoretically edible, but not worth the effort); they seed everywhere if not gathered up, which is why I now have lots to give away. (Photo by Franz von Duns under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.)
1y
Free:
rosemary cuttings / herb (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
I will prune back a rosemary bush this weekend so if you would like cuttings to grow on, or twigs to dry and use in cooking, let me know and I can save some. Tell me which you want (if you want to grow it I will keep it in water or soil), and how much. If you haven't grown rosemary cuttings before, just clip the base of the twig off and stick it in damp (not wet) earth in the sun. If you do half a dozen you will probably end up with two or three viable plants. For cooking, just put a bunch of twigs into a paper bag and leave them somewhere out of the sun to dry. After a couple of weeks you can strip the leaves from the twigs and keep them in a jar, or you can whizz them in a blender first to powder them if you prefer.
1y
Free:
striped cream/beige cushion covers (Caldecott OX14)
Gifted
Three cushion covers, cream with beige stripes and piped edges, approx 45 cm x 40 cm. Zip opening. Cotton, apparently dry-clean only but I suspect that's just the manufacturers covering themselves (ha) in case people wash the covers too hot and they shrink. Note that two of the covers have small marks (see pictures) - they might well wash out but, see above, I haven't tried.
1y