Best of British

Building shepherd’s huts in Dorset

FURNITURE MAKER Richard Lee was walking his dog near Thomas Hardy’s cottage in Dorset one day in 2000, when he spotted a beautiful shepherd’s hut on a hill. ‘It seemed to be part of the landscape,’ he recalls. Yet a few weeks later, it disappeared – so Lee built a replica.

He began visiting Victorian huts across the UK for research, measuring them to ensure his matched precisely, and hunting down original iron wheels. For Lee, 47, it was paramount that his own hut was an authentic tribute to those once used by shepherds.

Having spent six months building that first hut, and enjoyed the process so much, in 2007, Lee and his wife Jane set up their own business making them to order. Before building starts, Lee designs a floor plan, often basing it around where the hut will eventually be located. ‘I am always keen to make the best of the view,’ Lee explains. ‘You might want to lie in bed and look through a window at a hill with a tree.’

He then builds the floor of the hut and its timber frame, which usually measures 12ft x 6ft 6in, before he begins the walls and roof. ‘The walls are clad in plywood and 95 per cent of the outside is corrugated iron,’ says Lee.

The hut is then wheeled into a painting room for decoration, before being sent to be kitted out with a bed, cupboards, windows and a wood burner. Finally, wheels are added – the last stage in a process that can take three months.

The couple’s company, Plankbridge, has built more than 500 huts to date, some of which were displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show last year. Prices start from £16,500 and they are popular with glampers, as well as people who use them as living spaces in their gardens. Last May, it was reported that David Cameron had a £25,000 shepherd’s hut in the garden of his Cotswolds home, in which he intends to write his memoirs.

Lee says the most satisfying part of the process is delivering the huts to his customers. ‘The huts are so rooted in the landscape, even if it’s a back garden,’ he explains. ‘Sometimes we crane it in and I think, “This is not going to move for another 150 years.”’ plankbridge.com

Clockwise from main Plankbridge creators Richard Lee and Jane Dennison; wrought-iron wheels are the last piece of the jigsaw; planning the week’s construction timetable in the workshop. Interview by Jessica Carpani