I just couldn’t pass up a post on the beautiful shepherd huts built by the Plankbridge company in Dorset, England.
Plankbridge shepherds’ huts are a traditional, insulated and mobile design of the classic sheepherding hut. These are for contemporary uses such as a home office, studio, bolthole, music or garden room. A shepherd’s hut will provide you with a warm, dry and relatively soundproof space for use throughout the year.
The two huts available are the Plankbridge for £8500 or $13,500 and the Dorset for £5643 or $9,000.
Plankbridge handcrafts their own metal chassis and cast iron wheels. All exposed timber is pressure treated. The frame is made from Dorset grown durable Douglas fir and is assembled using timber frame house building techniques. It is very strong, and weatherproof, and is carefully designed to keep the interior dry.
The whole hut, from floor to roof, is insulated, and you may choose either standard mineral wool or Thermafleece sheep’s wool which is very environmentally friendly and a superb natural insulator.
The floor is solid character grade French oak, finished in linseed oil. We fit one cottage style window as standard, and you are free to specify further windows and their position. The windows are double glazed which adds to the overall thermal and sound insulation properties. The stable door is from kiln dried, knot free Canadian Douglas Fir. The doors are then fitted with a hand forged Suffolk latch, and a five lever mortise lock.
The interior and exterior paint is chosen by the customer as well.
The inside of the huts are 1.84m (6’) wide by 3.5m (11’6”) long. It is 2.3m (7’6”) to the highest point of the curved ceiling. To create extra room Plankbridge will often build into the wall cavity to create a bed length of 6’4″. The recessed area is then insulated with aluminium airtec insulation, at no extra cost. They can also make the huts a little longer, if required.
The customer can also purchase additional features such as a bunk or double bed, electrical wiring, a fold away desk or a woodstove. The stoves are made by a craftsman blacksmith in Devon.
Plankbridge is based on a wetland nature reserve and they strive to enhance and protect the landscape. They also use only locally sourced materials in the huts.
For more information on shepherd’s huts or sheep wagons, read this Tiny House Blog post
Special thanks to Stephen Oliver for this link: Shepherd Huts are the New Country Accessory
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Funnily enough, I was out walking in the Dorset countryside a couple of weeks ago and came across one of these. Sadly it was locked up tight and we couldn’t see in. My phone had just died as I’d not taken a charger with me for the weekend and so I couldn’t get a photograph of it. It was tucked away in some trees at the side of a field and looked very much at home.
I poked around it looking at the custom chassis and thinking of how I might incorporate some of the ideas into my tiny house project in the future.
J.
Any idea how to find something like the Plankbridge Hut in the US?
I saw similar shepherd’s huts by court and hunt at the Hampton court flower show in the UK. http://www.courtandhunt.co.uk. They were gorgeous, so romantic and what a cozy place to snuggle up in…..