Sheep farmer loses out on 6ft dilapidated shepherd’s hut – to wealthy Londoner who paid £16,000

A sheep farmer has lost out on buying a dilapidated shepherd’s hut to a wealthy Londoner, who paid £16,000 to use it as a quirky bolthole.

At just 8ft high, 9ft wide and 6ft deep the wooden hut with a leaky roof and rot might not be the first thing that springs to mind when you imagine a relaxing retreat.  

But despite being in desperate need of restoration the hut, that has been sitting on land in Shaftesbury, Dorset, for 50 years, sold for 20 times its £800 estimate at Charterhouse Auctioneers of Sherborne, Dorset.  

The anonymous London-based buyer who secured the run-down Victorian contraption saw off competition from a ‘terribly disappointed’ Dorset shepherd who hoped to use it for its traditional purpose.

A dilapidated late Victorian shepherd’s hut has sold for £16,000 following a bidding war between a wealthy Londoner and a local herder

The 8ft high, 9ft wide, 6ft deep wooden hut is covered in rot and has a leaky roof. But despite being in desperate need of restoration, it sold for 20 times its £800 estimate with Charterhouse, of Sherborne, Dorset

The unnamed shepherd far exceeded his £8,000 budget in a desperate bid to secure it, but his purse-strings could not stretch far enough.

The hut had been kept in the grounds of a small country house outside of Shaftesbury where it ‘hadn’t moved a wheel for 50 years’.

It achieved a hammer price of £13,000, with extra fees taking the final figure paid to £16,250.

The trend for shepherd’s huts being used either as novel holiday stays let out on places like Airbnb or as home offices is thought to have led to the bidding war.

In 2017 David and Samantha Cameron famously bought a brand new one for £25,000 to use as a garden office. 

The London-based buyer who secured the hut is thought to want to turn it into a holiday home or outside office

The inside of the charming hut, which needs some restoration to leak-proof the roof and remove rotting parts

Auctioneer Richard Bromell said: ‘Although it is in quite a state, the hut is such a charming item with so much character.

‘If you want to restore it, the first thing to attack is the leaky roof.

‘We had two bidders going against each other and when that happens the price is driven up.

‘The client was from central London and one can assume he wanted it for a holiday home or an outside office at a second residence.

The hut achieved a hammer price of £13,000, with extra fees taking the final figure paid to £16,250

The wheels of hut appear to be intact, despite being covered with foliage from 50 years of sitting in the same Dorset location

‘The other bidder has just bought a flock of sheep and amazingly wanted to use it as a shepherd’s hut, which must be pretty much unheard of these days.

‘The under-bidder was terribly disappointed. He stopped bidding at about £8,000, had a think, and carried on until he really had had enough at £11,500.

‘It was a hard-fought bidding battle.

‘The hut was in the grounds of a country house and had not moved a wheel in 50 years.

‘The father died so we carried out a sale of its contents and the family was over the moon with the result.’