by Clare Coulson - March 17, 2017

Outbuilding of the Week: Plankbridge Shepherd’s Huts

Plankbridge Shepherd's Hut UK

In England’s bucolic south west, the rolling hills, moors, and woodlands will be forever associated with the 19th century novelist Thomas Hardy. And at Plankbridge, which produces hand-crafted shepherd’s huts, a little bit of Hardy’s own time lives on.

Richard Lee, who trained as a furniture designer, and Jane Dennison discovered an ancient hut near Thomas Hardy’s cottage in Dorset and then set about making their own. Now the couple and their team of artisans make huts that start at £19,800 for the Simply Classic, with bespoke huts starting at £22,225 and a new larger Living Hut around £35,000. Let’s take a closer look:

Photography courtesy of Plankbridge.

Plankbridge shepherd's huts UK — Above: Shepherd’s huts have dotted the landscape in parts of rural England for hundreds of years, when they were pulled out into the hills to provide shelter for shepherds: in Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy described Gabriel Oak nursing a lamb in his shepherd’s hut.

Plankbridge Shepherd's Hut UK — Above: Plankbridge stays true to the traditional Victorian design of Hardy’s time with a curved corrugated metal roof (in other parts of the country peaked roofs are used), while sides can either be in traditional corrugated panels or in any type of timber including oak or larch.

At Plankbridge, staying true to the tradition of the original shepherd’s huts is not hard, as the firm acquired copies of the original blueprints from local Dorchester foundry Lott and Walne, established in 1899. The huts today are still made with a metal chassis and four sturdy cast iron wheels.

Plankbridge Shepherd's hut UK — Above: The company has built huts to be used as writers and artist’s studios, extra living accommodation, and even a gardener’s hut fitted out with potting benches, tools, extra windows, and a parquet floor.

The beauty of the shepherd’s hut is that it blends into any landscape. Prince Charles has a Plankbridge hut at his Gloucestershire home, Highgrove. The huts are also used at The Pig on the Beach and at National Trust properties too.

Plankbridge Living Hut shepherd's hut — Above: The larger Living Hut, has been introduced after customers asked for more livable spaces; it can be fitted with a kitchen and bathroom and is cozy year round with double glazed oak windows, an oak stable door, and a 3-kilowatt woodburning stove.

Plankbridge shepherd's huts UK — Above: In the regular sized huts there’s still room for a cozy double bed.

N.B.: For more shepherd’s huts, see Camping in the Lake District: Shepherd’s Huts in Greystoke Forest.

You need to login or register to view and manage your bookmarks.

Add to Collection

No more results!

Haven't found what you are looking for? Try seaching!

×

Join the Remodelista Family of Websites

Become a Member at no charge

When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.

Become a Member

Member benefits include:

Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites

Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!

For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.

Subscribe Subscribe

Annual ~~$119.88~~ $59.99/year - SAVE 50%

Monthly $9.99/mo

Subscriber benefits include:

Unlimited access to all three sites
Weekly access to subscriber-only content
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99

×

Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.

Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites

For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.

Subscribe Subscribe

Annual (Save 50%) $59.99 USD/yr

Monthly $9.99 USD/mo

Subscriber benefits include:

Unlimited access to all three sites
Weekly access to subscriber-only content
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99

Become a Member at no charge

When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.

Become a Member

Member benefits include:

Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites