With all the huts now in place at River Cottage HQ, sited above the farm house and valley beyond, River Cottage guests can enjoy a night, and breakfast, on site.  Steve from River Cottage made a film of the last hut being loaded at our workshop and then the unloading, and a short interview with Richard and Jane, which hopefully will be online soon.  Despite August being the month when everyone else seems to be away we are cracking on with the huts on order with a spring in our step.  We will be showing a hut at Dorset County Show in early September, so we are building up to putting some kind of display together for that. 

We have just delivered an interesting hut to Portesham vineyard, not far from us in South Dorset.  It's an island bothy version (door on the side, which obviously is not a classic shepherd's hut but it suits some people).  We built in a separate 4'6" bedroom area, with the bed in two folding sections on wooden hinges.  When raised up the underside of the bed sections are shelves for wine bottles, so the vineyard owner can stand and serve wine from a counter top, with the option of a 4'6" by 6'6" bed when required!  We added a wood burner, dresser cupboard, shelves, fold down desk and belly box underneath for storage of the solar charging kit, which links into the 240 volt wiring via an inverter.

We also made a 5 metre canvas awning (made from the same top quality strong canvas that was used for the canvas backs of soft top Land Rovers) with turned softwood poles, smart guy ropes and oak toggles for tensioning.  We can now offer side awnings (with sides too if needed)  from 2 metres to 5 metres wide, increasing the useful floor space of a hut.

We have just delivered a Dorset downland hut to Somerset, and we are often asked to explain the difference between the two models we offer.  The Downland  is intended to be of a specification familiar to a Victorian shepherd.  However both versions have the same insulated roof with breather membrane and vapour barrier under the roof sheets.  The downland has an exposed timber frame on the inside, with a pine floor and no cavity under the floor.    I personally would prefer to take the hut beyond this stage to the much more refined Plankbridge hut.  This version has a cavity all round (floor, roof and walls) and benefits from the breather membrane and vapour barrier on all the walls and under the oak floor.  The main advantage is that the hut becomes a similar environment to a modern timber frame structure, meaning papers and books can be left inside without becoming damp.  The insulated cavity helps soundproof the interior, making it a relaxing place to be whatever the weather. 

During the snow I lit the stove in our Plankbridge hut early in the morning and it swiftly got to 21 degrees centigrade  inside the hut.  I kept the burner ticking over, maintaining the warmth inside and there was still 2" of snow on the roof at 3 in the afternoon.  A fully insulated hut has got to be a good thing!

Just as the cold weather has ended I have nearly finished the front of the building.  Hanging two pairs of doors 14' high wasn't easy, particularly as we were working with frozen timber and temperatures as low as minus 7!  Mind you, I like a challenge like that and it took nearly two weeks of working in the cold for it to start to wear thin; (the frozen timber / cold fingers combination gets to you in the end)   However we escaped the heavy snow, despite a couple of warnings of a 'severe weather event' over Dorset!  How we wished for some decent snow, which never came.  Oh well.  The severe weather across the rest of the country did mean we couldnt deliver a hut to East Grinstead, a delivery which had to be called off 3 times due to heavy snow in that area.  Now that the front of the workshop is on we look forward to settling down in a dry, warm environment in which to build the huts after many years of coping with the elements.  I was also reflecting today on the improvements we have made to the hut build over the last year, not least of which is the traditional lead flashing we now use to fit the windows into the corrugated cladding.  By dressing the lead over the corrugated a really good seal is created against the weather.  Another development is the powder coating of the chassis, which is a much more durable finish than hand painting with red oxide and a black paint top coat.  Our all steel chassis (based on the Victorian Reeves design and made by Andrew, our resident blacksmith) plus the powder coated finish creates what we believe to be the most authentic and durable shepherd's hut chassis on the market.  It avoids that timber axle beam to metal stub axle join which always seems to fail on the old huts we have had in for restoration, as the end of the timber beam must take the onslaught of weather over the years.

We enjoyed a visit to River Cottage HQ to discuss Plankbridge shepherds huts being used for accomodation by visitors to the farm.  It's a fantastic place, and the food was amazing too!