I TREASURE TIME IN SALVAGED BOLTHOLE

Writer and artist Bryony Hill, 66, lives in West Sussex in the home she used to share with her late husband, sports commentator Jimmy Hill. She says: We got our shepherd’s hut in 2011. It belonged to two elderly sisters on a nearby farm who had played in it as children, then used it for storage.

It was in a dilapidated state/ but my brother Neil and a friend spent four months rebuilding it. It’s quite high off the ground.

growing up in Sussex, I’d always wanted a shepherd’s hut and was determined it would be as traditional as possible.

the interior contains gifts from friends and items precious to me: the paraffin stove was our father’s and was used at the D-Day Landings, and the bunting was made from the dress our mother wore on Ve Day.

the hut is set in the middle of a field of wildflowers, and I remember the roses were still out when it was completed.

In the latter part of 2011, Jimmy and I would sit companionably inside, looking over the water meadow below. I treasure those moments, though Jimmy was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had become very disorientated. I was grateful for anything that made him feel peaceful and calm.

Since Jimmy’s death in 2015, the hut has become my bolthole. It’s very calm and somewhere I go to write and draw. I have recently done the illustrations for a book out this month — Sillybilly, the Naughtiest Boy with a Heart of gold — by a friend, Robin Whitcomb.

I can see why David Cameron is keen to use his hut as a writing retreat. His cost over £20,000, though, whereas mine was less than £6,000. It was a labour of love.