Chawton House restoration, Alton, Hampshire

We were very pleased to be asked to rebuild a characterful shepherd's hut belonging to the Chawton House Library estate, near Alton in Hampshire, formerly the home of Jane Austen and her family and now a library of womens' literature.  The hut had become very derelict in one of the woods, and they were keen for it to be on display again.  We rebuilt it using as much of the original as we could.  It had previously been some kind of agricultural wagon, very heavily built with an oak frame and stout ironwork.  At some point it had been converted to a shepherds hut, hence the unusual proportions.

We had to restrain ourselves from doing too much obvious restoration, as it needed to look in keeping with the surroundings, and not in any way like a new build.  The original pitch pine door and some of the cladding remains sound, but there were still many, many  hours put into this project.  The hut can now gently mellow down as the new oak weathers, and hopfully William Parsons, the old shepherd whose name is carved inside the door, would be proud to see his hut back home again.

Reeves Renovation - South Dorset

'Just a note to say how delighted I am with our renovated shepherd's hut, it looks lovely and has quite exceeded my expectations!  ... it looks so fresh and well kept up and yet you have managed to keep all the original features and finishes which is just what I wanted....I can see it from my office window and it looks so charming under the trees...I can't wait to light the woodburner and have a cup of tea in there!'

A local estate asked us to renovate their shepherd's hut, which probably had been on the farm since new.  Used as a Gamekeepers hut, the retired keeper, who lives nearby, told us many stories about it.  A vintage car stood in the wood next to the hut for many years, and someone had drawn a fine pencil sketch of the car on the wall inside.  We also found notes, dated 1945, of which fields had been sown at certain dates; again written in pencil on the
walls.

A farm worker had painted the corrugated cladding in electric blue hammerite, so we stripped that back, red oxided the tin and repainted in mid Brunswick green.  This is a particularly good, original hut made by R & J Reeves and Son, Bratton Ironworks, Westbury, Wilts.  The original bed, table and seat are still in place, and we patched in rat holes and floor boards
where needed.  We fitted a Windysmithy wood burner, put new glass in the door and repaired or replaced the forged metal work as required.

Many of the details of a Reeves hut chassis can be seen in our Plankbridge
chassis design.

Baker & Sons Renovation - Cotswolds

Plankbridge was commissioned to restore an original Baker and Sons, Berkshire shepherd's hut for a customer in the Cotswolds. The brief was to retain it's 'faded glory', add two new windows and remake the original window. We also repaired and installed the antique woodburner. New roof sheets were added, over a new curved timber roof lining, with insulation placed in the roof cavity.

Once the mountain of cattle cake and rat remains had been removed work could begin. It is a fine hut, built in 1895 using oak, elm, pitch pine and some particularly interesting castings and ironwork. It illustrates how highly regarded and significant shepherds' huts were in the rural community.