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Gardener, television presenter, and writer Alan Titchmarsh is selling his shed. In fact, he's selling all his outbuildings at his home in Alton, Hampshire, along with his lovely Grade II listed 17th century five bedroom Manor House Farm and extensive four acres of beautiful gardens (on the market with Savills for £3.95m).
There are various shed buildings on the property including, naturally, a rather nice greenhouse and a 42ft party barn/theatre space with library, and what Savills describes as a "potting shed", though it has a kitchenette, lavatory, and shower so... Country Life magazine has a magnificient photo of Alan in his blue velvet smoking jacket in one of his sheds - do click the link for a peek. Pictured above is that library, a summerhouse, and his triangular office.
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If for whatever reasone you want to rent a garden office rather than buy one, among those suppliers offering that option is Booths Garden Studios. You can fine more details about their scheme here, but in brief there is an installation fee and then a monthly rental fee. Mains connection and Part P certification are included, while the maximum distance they will install a rental studio is 160 miles from their workshop at NN18 8AN (e.g. all of London and down to Brighton on the south coast).
As an example, below is a video by Dianne who runs a beauty business, talking about how renting helped her:
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Places are limited to just 12 participants and no previous building experience required. Price per person is £695. More details here.
Here are some more details:
Working in small groups, you’ll use hand tools such as drill-drivers, staplers and hammers to assemble the structure step by step. You’ll fit natural insulation, membranes and tapes, install a window, fix cladding and gutters, and wire up a safe 12V lighting system. For safety reasons, all cutting of sheet and large sections will be done for you.
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There are currently 55 popular beach huts on the island. The 26 new ones will be located at Minster Leas (pictured above) and Leysdown and will help meet the high demand and reduce waiting times. There are just under 200 people on the waiting list at the moment. Some of the huts will be available to buy, others for both long and short-term rentals.
There will also be a community hut at Minter as part of the new project. This will be available for a range of community groups to utilise, adding to the one already in Leysdown.
Works are due to start at Leysdown in mid-September and Minister in early November.
The council is also assessing whether to install further huts at Minster Leas, but say they would consult residents and key stakeholders before adding any new ones.
“Demand continues to grow to enjoy our beautiful coast," said Councillor Monique Bonney, chair of the economy and property committee at the council. “The beach huts have always been popular, and now we will have different ways of owning or renting them, to make sure they can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Now we’ve got the green light, we’ll get to work planning and building the huts, so people can start to spend even more enjoyable days on our fantastic beaches.”
Pic courtesy Swale Borough Council
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There are optimistic sounds coming from the campaign to restore Charles Dickens' writing chalet in Rochester which as you know has been in an increasingly poor state of repair for some time now.
The project - a partnership between Medway Council and the Friends of Eastgate House - now has its own website where its mission statement is "to revive and reimagine Dickens’ Writing Chalet as a vibrant cultural space for the community". Here's what they say:
Alongside other key heritage sites — such as Eastgate House, the Six Poor Travellers, Restoration House and The Bull Hotel – the Chalet will become part of a compelling story about place, history and imagination. It will also serve as a platform for events and fundraising activities to secure its future use and ongoing maintenance, helping to preserve its legacy for generations to come.Recent events over the summer have included opening the chalet to the public during August, and the presentation of a mini chalet scale model to the Annual Conference of the Dickens Fellowship. We'll keep you posted on further updates on this extremely worthy scheme.
Image courtesy Rye Design
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