This one’s a bit of a different On Location, as it’s the story of another story.  If you aren’t quite following that, then read on!

One of my great privileges is to work with Blackdown Shepherd Huts, a bespoke, luxury shepherd hut brand here in Somerset. It’s a role I enjoy immensely and over the last few years have become somewhat attached to the brand. If I’m on-site at the workshops I love to wander between the various huts being worked on and watching them come alive.  Discovering that a finished hut has left the workshop is always a good day.  

There’s a nationwide haulage company called Stobarts that thousands of people get excited about seeing their trucks up and down our road network on a daily basis.  Games and trackers to fill in for each individual lorry as they are all uniquely named. Never mind Stobarts though, I love to see a Blackdown hut heading off for pastures new!  A somewhat smaller game, but harder to play as you can imagine but when one goes past on the opposite carriageway I smile a knowing smile.  What joy these beautifully crafted spaces create.

 

I headed up to the eastern edges of Dartmoor earlier in 2023 to photograph a special story for Blackdown.   A few years previously a new business was being formed and the owner had decided she wanted a shepherd hut to be the basis of her new beauty salon.  I’ve seen shepherd’s huts used in many ways as workspaces and studios, they lend themselves perfectly to this kind of space.

This hut had an additional story to it though. It had been a self-build project for Chloe and her family in 2017.

Except in 2023, they went a little further with their dreams.

With business booming, Chloe wanted to expand her original shepherd hut and after another trip to Blackdown’s offices and show garden she decided that another self-build was the way forward and to bolt the new hut onto the old hut and create her very own self-build brace of huts.  Which I think is a first for Blackdown.

With the experience gained from their first build 6 years before, her husband and family created the most incredible salon space you are likely to ever see on the British Isles.  Not least because this beautiful brace sits quietly at the bottom of a long meandering track in front of a stunning small lake with trees swaying around it gently in the breeze.  

If ever there was a peaceful spot for a restorative massage treatment then this was it.

The unique story with this particular hut deserved to be told, so I set to work for Blackdown to create a visual story that would encourage others to pick up their own hammers and create their own dream directly. 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel x

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PPS… if you have a brand product or service that you would love to show the world about, then drop me a message here