Longstanding friend of Shedworking Nick Inman who is a long-term resident of France has started a short series about building sheds for the excellent connexionfrance.com site. Well worth a read and you can catch up with it here.
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Now is your chance to have a look around Charles Dickens's writing chalet in Rochester. The ground floor will be open to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme on September 12, 13, 19, and 20 (click link to book).
Visiting hours are between 11am and 4pm at Eastgate Gardens off Rochester High Street where members of the council's Heritage Team,
the Friends of Eastgate House and the Charles Dickens Fellowship will
be on chat about the building.
There will also be talks and tours throughout each day, full details via the link above. Booking is not necessary.
Image courtesy Visit Medway
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If you're looking for a new garden office, this is a good time to peruse the roughly 400 offerings from the various Malvern Garden Buildings' show sites around the country where they are renewing their stock. Reductions are 25% and upwards off the original price, and includes delivery and installation when the garden building is installed within 25 miles of the showsite where it’s located.
According to Malvern, each ex-display garden building is a one-off, available on a first-come, first-served basis, and often finished to a higher specification, having been designed to showcase the possibilities.
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The poll of more than 2,000 people revealed that just over a third felt their home wi-fi connection was poor, affecting their ability to work remotely or from home. Worryingly,
only 15% said their home office was one of the best rooms for getting a good connection while 9% struggled to get any connection in their home office at all.
A fifth say they they have consequently been forced to work from other rooms, such as the kitchen and their children’s bedrooms, and the same figure had experienced work calls disconnecting.
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According to new research from Monzo the best value beach huts for a day out are:
1. Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan Council: £24/day
2. Swanage Beach (Spa Beach Huts), Swanage Town Council: £26/day
3. Bournemouth Beach, BCP Council: £30/day
3. Crooklets Promenade, Bude-Stratton Town Council: £30/day
3. Lowestoft & Felixstowe, East Suffolk Council: £30/day
3. Swanage Beach (Shore Beach Huts, Upper Level), Swanage Town Council: £30/day
4. Thanet Coastline, Thanet District Council: £35/day
5. Mablethorpe Promenade, Mablethorpe & Sutton Town Council: £35.95/day
and for a longer trip:
1. Lowestoft & Felixstowe, East Suffolk Council: £100/week
2. Belvedere Beach, East Riding of Yorkshire Council: £130/week
2. Hornsea Beach, East Riding of Yorkshire Council: £130/week
3. Swanage Beach (Spa Beach Huts), Swanage Town Council: £151/week
4. Whitby West Cliff Promenade, North Yorkshire Council: £187/week
5. Swanage Beach (Shore Beach Huts, Upper Level), Swanage Town Council: £190/week
In terms of accessible beach huts, the researchers name East Suffolk as offering the widest range of accessible hire options, starting from £50 per day or £145 per week during the summer.
Photo courtesy MrMatt1
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Summer is always shed competition time and you've only got a few days to enter the annual Love Your Hut of the Year competition which celebrates the many wonderful beach huts up and down the country. The winner receives a luxury hamper (Champagne, exotic cordial, jam, sea salt crackers, tapenade, sun cream and aftersun), a LYH logo beach towel, LYH sunglasses and a £25 Blackhawk voucher, plus the Love Your Hut of the Year plaque. There are also runners-up prizes.
Details of how to enter at the link above and the closing date is September 1.
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Wolverhampton Wanderers-themed pub shed Bar Hibby's in Rugeley has won the 2026 Pub Shed of the Year organised once again by Two Fat Blokes Bar Signs and Ngage Radio.
Owned by Tina and Rich Hibbs who built it in 2018, the 20ftx10ft Staffordshire shed is decorated with a huge collection of Wolves memorabilia and is used by all the family for relaxing and parties as well as Christmas lunch. Last year's winner Cognito's owned by Glen Gandy from Willenhall also had a Wolves theme.
Other features include an outdoor play area, beer garden, Pac-Man arcade machine, large screen television, bar with lager and cider on draught, and traditional pub benches and tables.
The two runners-up in the competition which attracted 1,088 entries were The Mucky Pub in Wakefield and The Pampered Chicken in Emsworth.
Next year's competition will see all six previous winners pitted against each other.
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