– Year-round, timeless accommodation safeguards investment made
– Sited @ Yew Tree Farm, Hurst Green, East Sussex, TN19 7QP
Sussex sheep farmer, Jo Shippam, has an eye for a good investment. Faced with the prospect of buying land to continue a lifetime of sheep farming or selling his flock and moving to a town, the smart farmer looked to his livestock and opted out of the surging bricks and mortar property market, instead choosing a Blackdown® Shepherd Hut to live-in all year-round.
Using Blackdown’s expert design and shepherd hut know-how, Mr Shippam’s 16ft by 7ft moveable hut, now resides proudly on his 37-acre Yew Tree Farm, right next to his 70-strong flock of rare-breed sheep.
The hut offers snug, cosy accommodation that delights his 11 year old daughter, and offers the perfect scratching post for his rare-breed flock. Thanks to the sheep’s antics, Mr Shippam is gently rocked to sleep each and every night.
His Blackdown® Shepherd Hut purchase is a smart move. Industry figures reveal seven buyers chasing every UK house sale, driving house prices £6,000 higher in one month alone. Prices are widely predicted to keep soaring, with a 7 per cent increase next year and 5 per cent in 2015 as the growing UK economy transforms Britain’s property market.
It is a price increase Mr Shippam is well aware of. He said, ‘Rising house prices in rural Sussex are being pushed even higher by the lack of supply. With energy prices rocketing and wider environmental concerns of new-build bricks & mortar, a traditional purchase at this stage did not seem the wisest solution.’
‘After weighing things up and looking at the options, I realised a Blackdown® Shepherd Hut offers the mobile living space I could design and decorate, an attractive return on investment if I come to sell and vital overflow accommodation should traditional bricks and mortar tempt me back’.
‘The cosy Blackdown® hut is a terrific buy, offering me traditional, timeless accommodation, unobtrusive to the Sussex countryside.’
Mr Shippam’s shepherd’s hut, built on Blackdown’s beautiful, ultra-strong oak chassis has an all-weather metal-clad exterior, that is hard-wearing and robust enough to withstand the elements for years to come.
Inside is a solid oak floor, as well as oak sills and shelves. Blackdown’s innovative use of cosy, eco-friendly sheep wool insulates the wall cavities – the specialist hut maker were the first to implement this logical cavity lining.
Mr Shippam’s hut provides cosy, year-round, living, thanks to four double-glazed windows, professionally treated door and fully-fitted Louie Ranger wood-burning stove/oven. The interior is painted Sudbury yellow with a white ceiling.
Sitting securely on wrought iron wheels and built by skilled Somerset craftsmen, Blackdown® Shepherd huts can be transformed into everything from writers’ retreats and artist studios to shooting lodges, gastro-food huts, even luxury holiday homes.
Founded by two highly-skilled cousins, William Vickery and George Bannister in Somerset’s Blackdown Hills, Blackdown® Shepherd Huts is renowned for blending traditional artisan hut-builds with the latest cutting edge innovation, to create luxury, mobile living spaces.
Blackdown’s unique pre-built and self-build hut packages allow customers to achieve their own personally designed, high-quality artisan hut or bespoke hut-clusters.
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