Jo Simpson, from Sherborne in Dorset, bought a Blackdown Heritage Hut and was instantly smitten. She says: ‘My sisters talked me into getting a hut, telling me that everyone should have a ‘room of one’s own’, particularly if there is a novel trapped inside your brain and a newly retired husband looming in every corner of the marital home. So I went to Blackdown, we created my hut (whom I call Jabba) and I fell in love.
‘My she-shed sits in place under the ash tree in our garden. She is curtained, rugged and kitted out with a chair and a sheepskin and scatter cushions. I use my hut to help me on my literary venture and when I need inspiration I toddle down across the garden, light the stove and watch as the flames warm up my life and give me room to breathe.
‘I am sure at some point my she-shed will assume another guise – grandchildren’s playhouse, perhaps, or a spare room for visitors. But right now my shepherd’s but is my room of my own, and when you visit it’s my retreat, my rules!’