FAQs

The simple answer is the shepherd’s hut itself doesn’t need planning permission, it’s what you are doing with it that may do.

As the shepherd’s hut structure is on wheels and is portable the answer is often no. But any change of use of the land that the huts stand upon may need planning permission. Planning permission guidelines can be found online. Local plan policy is a good starting point if you do need planning permission, as if your project falls within the local plan that is a positive thing. In the curtilage of the house, and if the enjoyment of the hut is incidental to the enjoyment of the main dwelling then you don’t need planning permission. So if the hut is near the house, and you go out to the hut to paint, play the guitar, have friends to stay then that is all incidental to the enjoyment of the main dwelling. The test of ‘has a material change of use occurred’ is a good question to ask. If a hut is placed on an agricultural field, and it becomes a holiday let then planning permission would officially be needed. There is a permanency question too; can the hut be moved without large machinery? Yes it can, so it isn’t seen as a permanent structure. But if your hut has plumbing connected to the drain or septic tank (perhaps for a glamping venture) then it could be seen as being less portable – and if services such as septic tanks are needed then the Environment Agency will have guidelines for that, protecting watercourses. Whilst we have delivered many shepherds huts to National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including the Lake District, the Peak District, Dartmoor, the New Forest and the Black Mountains in Wales it is worth running the idea past them first.

Yes, the shepherd’s hut is built using modern timber frame house techniques, and can be used all year round. The 75mm / 3″ timber frame is completely sheathed in structural OSB 2, wrapped in breather membrane, insulated with British Thermafleece sheep’s wool, and lined with vapour barrier which contributes to a comfortable, warm and dry environment. The internal wall lining is very stable tongue and groove sheet material, achieving the look of traditional match-boarding with no knots or shrinkage.  It takes paint extremely well. Like with many things there are lots of magic ingredients that go into the hut build that makes it a cut above the rest.

Yes, it has an A framed draw bar on the steering end, and a hut can be pulled around using a small tractor or 4×4, for example to a summer and winter resting spot. Whilst many of our shepherd’s hut may only occasionally move from their spot once delivered, at least you know they can be. This is great advantage over an extension or conversion of an existing outbuilding, as you can take it with you if you move. A shepherd’s hut genuinely offers an alternative to an expensive extension with the associated building works.

No, we tailor each delivery to the needs of the location. Whether a crane is required to lift your hut into place, or you have limited access down a narrow country lane, for example, no two deliveries will be the same. Do get in touch to discuss delivery options, costs and other logistics with our experienced and knowledgeable team. 

As overseas enquiries have increased, our knowledgeable team have become adept at answering questions about shipping and solving any logistical issues related to terrain. As a result, there are few places in the world that we are now unable to reach. From sorting out insurance and booking your hut on to the ship, to taking it off at the other end and finding a haulage company with the correct equipment to deliver it to its final destination, we will ensure every step of the journey is as smooth and trouble-free as possible.

Years of hut making (we made our first hut over two decades ago) and having delivered many huts around the UK, Europe and even the USA this amounts to unrivalled experience, which we channel into every hut build. Plankbridge is at the forefront of the shepherd’s hut revival. Commentators have said that this was really triggered by our appearance on BBC TV Countryfile in 2011 with John Craven, and then our Artisan shepherd’s hut garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2012 which featured in many design-led magazines in the UK and around the World. We remain strongly influenced by the best Victorian hut makers, whose craftsmanship and design informs the contemporary huts we make today. Our furniture makers have worked in some of the famous Dorset workshops, and we treat each hut as if it were in effect a large piece of furniture, a cabinet on wheels! Richard trained at international furniture designer John Makepeace’s Hooke Park College back in the early ’90’s, which at the time was geared to training ‘entrepreneurs in wood’. We are also very keen on the Arts and Crafts philosophy of John Ruskin and William Morris, and have spent many years building a happy team and nurturing apprentice hut makers. We are the only shepherd’s hut makers to be endorsed by the RHS – the Royal Horticultural Society (the RHS) in recognition of our quality and experience.

We fit the kite marked stoves (the Devon made Arada Puffin) to a British standard for portable accommodation units. There is a fixed air vent, and CO alarm, with 12mm heat shield lining (over a 12mm air gap behind) around the stove which sits on a metal (or tiled) hearth. The flue pipe is twin wall all the way from stove to chimney cap, helping the relatively short length of flue draw well. We also fit cast iron electric radiators and lovely quality Everhot mini electric stoves with a small oven.

Some more eccentric interiors include a terrapin house, lighting made from hazel trees with bird boxes hanging as light shades, and an end wall finished in metal wallpaper imported from the US! We have fitted cast iron and copper bath tubs, and lined a shower in corrugated iron.

Richard went to what was Hooke Park College during the Parnham era, (which is now an architectural college). He ended up with an MSc in Forest Product Technology (design and manufacture), linked to Bournemouth University. Hooke was a great experience, if a little unusual. Richard saw it as a monastery of woodwork, spending two and a bit years in the woods on top of a hill in West Dorset. Students benefited from a wide range of impressive visiting lecturers who were the best in their fields of business studies, design and making.  It was mainly about the freedom to experiment in all aspects of timber design, from building to furniture to sculpture. Interestingly there are three regular trade exhibitors at the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show who, including Plankbridge, are Hooke Park alumni.

Corrugated iron is a wonderful traditional cladding material which has an industrial feel and is visually appealing. Corrugated iron was invented around 1850, and coincided with the heyday of the Victorian shepherd’s hut. We see them as intrinsically linked. It is lower maintenance than wood and extremely durable. However the feather edge weatherboard is an alternative. In oak it can be left natural to weather to a silver grey, or painted. Traditionally this was black, as they used to finish the cladding on buildings in a black tar which looks great, particularly in some parts of the country like Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent where buildings and shepherd’s huts were often pitched or ‘blackjacked’.

Shepherd’s huts look great in corrugated iron cladding, but we do clad huts in timber too. The horizontal sawn boards that you may be familiar with, most often seen on older buildings in places such as Suffolk, Kent and Sussex is usually a sawn feather edge board, the boards overlapping each other. Traditionally the boards were pitched black (a bi-product from shipwrights apparently), or naturally durable oak cladding can be left to weather to silver.

A hut fitted with flushing toilet and a shower will need connecting either to the main drain or a septic tank system. This is often a basic job for a groundworks company who would advise on the best options for you. Where connections to a drain aren’t possible we also fit self-contained composting units, and cassette type toilets.

240v electrics have a 3 pin duraplug under the hut, situated in a convenient place to suit you. If electric showers etc are involved then a 32 or 64amp supply will be required. An armoured cable can be trenched under ground or clipped to a fence or wall to feed an electric supply to the hut. Your electrician will be able to advise on how best to achieve this.

We can fit 12v solar kit to the hut – a small semi flexible panel sits on the roof and feeds a 110 amp/hr leisure battery. This runs low voltage LED lights and small charger sockets. A hut can be completely off grid and independent, an LPG boiler providing hot water – we are pleased to help advise further on this.

Our cast iron wheels are made in a foundry in Somerset from molten pig iron which is poured into our own mould patterns. Cast iron is very long lasting –the wheels could be around for hundreds of years!

We don’t offer shepherd’s hut kits. Whilst it could be possible to bundle the materials onto a shepherd’s hut chassis and leave it someone else we would much rather build complete shepherd’s huts and cabins for our customers. For us a hut is similar to a piece of furniture, albeit a large one, and we wouldn’t want to deliver a kitchen or a dining table in the form of planks of wood with a bag of bolts and screws.

Stable engineered European oak, finishing at 21mm thick and oil finished. All our timber is FSC or PEFC certified timber.

In the early days we restored many Victorian shepherd’s huts, and it has been fascinating to strip back the years and see how the craftsmen of old built the huts. Some have a surprising level of detailing, particularly those of Reeves of Bratton, Farris of Coombe Bisset and Lott and Walne of Dorchester. The heritage of these old huts lives on in the shepherd’s huts we build today. We even built much of the ‘hero prop’ shepherd’s hut for the 2015 Far from the Madding Crowd feature film starring Carey Mulligan; the set designers worked on the walls and interior and Richard enjoyed being an extra as a ‘Gentleman Buyer’ in the corn exchange scenes. We don’t make alterations or improvements to modern poor quality huts purchased elsewhere, although we do get asked to quite often!

Yes, we usually have one or two of our shepherd’s huts available for immediate delivery, generally configured in our most popular layouts. Do get in touch, you might be lucky.

Shepherd’s hut (with the apostrophe s) is the correct spelling. Shepherd hut just doesn’t look right and has caused much debate – army lorry, baker’s van, woodworker’s apron, builder’s truck, shepherd’s hut etc.

All prices given and delivery services are subject to the applicable rate of UK VAT. The exact rate depends on whether your hut has the attributes of a dwelling. If the hut is longer than 7 metres, wider than 2.55 metres and has a bathroom, kitchen and bed, it will be subject to 5% VAT. If the hut does not meet the criteria for living accommodation, in the case of our Standard Snug, for example, it is subject to 20% VAT. Please get in touch with our friendly team if you would like further information.