PLANKBRIDGE SHEPHERD’S HUTS

Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

The days have stretched a little longer but the hills are still steeped in a cold, soaking mist. Pity the shepherd out in the field who would once have had to endure lambing season alone but for his flock and dog. At night he would shelter from the elements in a humble, mobile hut, equipped only with a pot belly stove and bunk of straw from where he might watch over an orphaned lamb; a drop of dark ale fortifying them both.

I am on my way to meet Richard Lee, master maker and purveyor of modern-day shepherd’s huts, at Carter’s Barn Farm, nestled in the hills above the Piddle Valley. His business, Plankbridge, was one of the first to build the huts from scratch and he is still as enthusiastic about their classic design now as he was when he and his partner Jane Dennison started making them. Admittedly, some of the bespoke huts crafted by Richard and his team today are more akin to miniature boutique hotels than the humble shelters that inspired them. >

In the years between 1992 and 1994, Richard had been a student at John Makepeace’s Hooke Park College, the educational facility (now part of the Architectural Association) specialising in timber-based design and construction. ‘I did two one-year courses,’ he says, ‘but a particular five-week course that I took over the previous summer was amazing. I was 20, very green, and I realised that I wanted to work with timber and run my own business in some form.’ Richard didn’t want to go down the route of site work, and felt compelled to create something ‘like a box’ which could be reproduced. ‘I knew I wanted to create a repeatable product.’

Some time later, while living at Waterston (where he still lives) Richard came to admire a long-standing shepherd’s hut close to Waterston Manor. It may also have been admired by writer Thomas Hardy, whose cottage is at nearby Higher Bockhampton and who gave fame to the shepherd’s hut (although not this particular one it transpires) in his novel, Far From The Madding Crowd. ‘The old hut was sold,’ says Richard, ‘so I decided to make one myself. I researched the original shepherd’s huts, how they were designed, and tried to make an accurate replica but insulated it so it could be used as a room. I thought, if you are going to make a copy then why not make it usable?’

Although shepherd’s huts can be dated back to the sixteenth century, they were most common in the 1800s when shepherds literally followed their flocks. Sheep at the time were kept within wooden hurdles, they grazed the land, then moved on, leaving the land to be ploughed using nutrients from the droppings to feed the earth. A shepherd’s hut had to be portable. Generally, they were made by local blacksmiths, cast iron was used for the axle frame and wheels, while the curved roof was of corrugated tin that allowed the rainwater to run off. Dorset produced its own fair share of huts. Two major hut-makers - Farris & Sons of Shaftesbury and Lott & Walne of Dorchester – were still going strong at the turn of the last century but the First World War brought about a series of changes in farming and, with the arrival of the tractor, the shepherd’s hut was relieved of duty.

At last Richard had his box and with it the potential of a ‘repeatable product’. The hut format also provided Richard with the ideal platform and outlet for his skills and tenacious design ethic.

The birth of Plankbridge came in 2000. ‘I made one and kept it, then made another and sold it,’ he recalls. ‘I built it, and my brother (who lives in Somerset) made the wheels. For me, the wheels are the charm and romance of a hut,’ he explains. Gradually the business grew and then in 2012 came the Chelsea Flower Show. ‘It was when we did Chelsea that things really took off,’ he says. That year they created a show garden for the artisan section of the show, in partnership with the garden designers Woolcott and Smith. Their appearance caught the imagination of the public and suddenly the not-so-humble shepherd’s hut was in demand.

Nowadays Richard’s workshop is a 15,000 square foot hanger where he employs 24 staff. When I visited there were at least six huts mid-construction and a number of bespoke builds also underway. Still very much hand-crafted, each hut takes around 5-6 weeks to produce. The team are local – the longest commutes are from Wool and Portland – and there is clearly a collective sense of pride in their work.

‘The process of building the huts has evolved over the last 10 years,’ explains Richard. ‘I suppose we have built over 500 during that time.’ The hangar comprises of bays for each stage of production. There is also a forge where Mike makes the wheel pins and hooks, fuelled using charcoal from locally-coppiced hazel wood. The chassis are still made by Richard’s brother at his forge in Somerset.

Moving along the production line I meet joiner, Robert Simpson. ‘Robbie knows every type of wood there is,’ says Richard in way of an introduction. ‘Working here we have affinity with what happened before,’ explains Robert. There are 200 years of practise in this and we owe it to those who have done it before to honour those same exacting methods,’ he says.

Plankbridge is home to several Yeovil College apprentices. One of them, Tom Doar, from Milborne Port, has worked with the company for five years. As we chat, socially-distanced around the woodburner, Tom explains what he enjoys about working here. ‘It has given me access to a lot of new and varied work – from the building of the huts to the furniture.’ He has also recently completed a staircase – leaps and bounds from the basic storage cupboard Tom made on his arrival – and is soon to become team leader on the custom builds.

One bespoke aspect of a Plankbridge hut is colour and, in a paint shed within the hangar, we find Rikki busy applying a customer’s colour of choice. Rikki wrote to Richard when he was 15, still at school and eager to work on huts. He has been with the company now for nine years. Richard is watchful, precise, contemplative >

Images: Joss Barrett

even, and clearly a nurturing boss. At the time of writing he is actively recruiting, thanks in part to huts on order for The Pig Hotel chain, owned by Robin Hutson. Complete with bathrooms and kitchens these bespoke high-spec huts are painstakingly built with acute attention to detail - an endeavour requiring skilled, patient hands.

Unsurprisingly, more hut-builders have emerged on the scene over the last decade but Richard isn’t deterred by competition. ‘It can only be a good thing,’ he says. ‘This time that we are living through is very scary for many businesses,’ says Richard, ‘but it is great that we are thriving and able to provide local employment.’

I ask Richard why he thinks the humble shepherd’s hut has struck such a chord. ‘It’s about hailing back to childhood stories,’ he supposes, ‘and keeping a bit of that with you.’ I admit, I have a bit of a thing about huts. In 1997 I wrote a trend prediction piece for a national magazine forecasting that we’d be hankering after small personal spaces. It later became a book. Little did I know that it would become such a phenomenon. Thankfully Richard and his team are carrying on the tradition of yore and building huts of an heirloom quality. Maybe now, more than ever, we need a place of quiet contemplation to be alone with our thoughts and close to nature. And for Richard? What has been his proudest hut moment? ‘Well, that has to be the hut we built for the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy in Piccadilly. In the grounds of St. James Church, we have created a space where those who need it can find a quiet place of safety and solace.’ A little bit of Dorset in the rush and push of London. Amen to that.

elizabethwatsonillustration.com

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones BAKED CHEESECAKE

Image: Katharine Davies

When I was teenager at home I would buy a ready-made cheesecake packet that you added melted butter to biscuit crumbs and milk to the topping powder. There was a sachet of gloopy raspberry or strawberry topping and this was poured over the top. Cheesecake? I think not!

I was never satisfied with the result so I substituted digestive biscuits rather than the pack crumbs and instead of milk I put in double cream, this made the filling lighter and smoother. Little did I know that this was nothing like a real cheesecake should be but it was better than the kit. I look back and realise now that baking and making is intuitive - when you know a variety of different ingredients, you instinctively develop a recipe to suit your own particular taste.

Having always been a fan of Delia Smith I found her recipe for a baked cheesecake, New York style - it was an awakening for me. I made it and the family fell in love with it. I added gluten-free biscuit crumbs and it was then perfect for my GF relatives. Twelve years ago when I started to visit New York to see my family, we ate the most fabulous cheesecakes and I vowed to perfect my recipe. This recipe has taken me a few years to develop but it is my ‘go to’ basic recipe that can have different things swirled into it or topped with.

It takes more time to make compared to the packet variety but is far superior and as always I tinkered with the recipe until I felt it was my own. I prefer to use mascarpone as it is the Italian version of cream cheese but I have put cream cheese in this recipe. Also if I have time I will use a genoise sponge base as this is the more traditional base for New York cheesecake. I must thank Paul Hollywood for the method of beating in the cream cheese, his method does take time but it ensures a velvety-smooth filling.

What you will need •A 23cm/9 inch cake tin at least 4cm deep and with a loose bottom - I use a spring-form for easy release. •A deep roasting tin that will allow you to create a

water bath. •Silicon or baking paper to line the base and sides, 2-3 cm above depth of the tin. •A large, star piping nozzle and piping bag. •In my recipe book I show you how to slow cook a tin of condensed milk to create a caramel - it pipes easily onto the top of cakes and in this recipe the top of the cheesecake.

Tip Use a roll of silicon (I use Bake-o-Glide) to line sides of celebration cake tins and for cheesecakes too as it gives a really smooth finish to the sides of the bake and is re-useable many times.

Ingredients For the base 200g digestive biscuits / shortbread biscuits, these can be gluten-free 60g unsalted butter

For the filling 800g full-fat cream cheese 2 rounded tablespoons custard powder 100g caster sugar 4 medium free range eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 250ml double cream

For the topping (if you wish) Half a tin of caramel, optional for piping 250ml double cream 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 500g strawberries Or you may wish to serve with some berries of your choice and a little double cream poured over

Method 1 Pre heat the oven to 175C/350F/Gas 4, grease and line the base and sides of the cake tin. 2 Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin to fine crumbs. 3 Melt the butter and add the biscuit crumbs, stirring to combine. Pour the crumbs into the base of the baking tin and press down firmly - I use a slightly smaller cake tin and press this onto the crumbs to ensure the mixture is pressed firmly and evenly. 4 Bake in the oven for 8 minutes until slightly golden, remove and allow it to cool. 5 To make the filling, place 200g of the cream cheese

in a bowl with the custard powder and 25g of the sugar and beat very slowly until smooth - repeat this three times more, beating very slowly to ensure a really creamy mixture. 6 Add the eggs one at a time on medium speed, beating well before adding the next egg. Add the vanilla extract and double cream, beat until just combined. Pour the mixture evenly into the cake tin, levelling off the top gently. 7 Place the tin in the roasting tin and add sufficient cold water to come 2-3cm up the side of the cake tin. 8 Bake for about an hour - the edges should be slightly golden and the middle of the cheesecake should have a slight wobble. 9 Place the cheesecake on a cooling rack to cool completely, once cool cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill. Either serve with a few berries and pouring cream or finish off as follows. 10 Pour half a tin of the caramel into a bowl and beat slightly until smooth, place in a piping bag and snip of the end to create small piped trellis pattern over the top of the cheesecake. 11 Place the cream in a bowl and beat to stiff peak, beat in the vanilla, place in a piping bag and pipe around the edges of the cheese cake, finally add the strawberries.

POT-ROASTED CHICKEN BREAST WITH WALNUT SATSIVI SAUCE

Sasha Matkevich and Jack Smith, The Green

Image: Katharine Davies

This is my take on a Georgian classic and it always reminds me of holidays in the mountains. I use locally-foraged walnuts which are far superior in flavour to the imported supermarket ones but of course not so easy to come by.

Ingredients 2 large chicken breasts, skin on 2 cloves of garlic 200ml white wine 20g butter 1 sprig of rosemary 136g walnuts, toasted and peeled 2 tablespoons dijon mustard 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon coriander seeds 1 pinch curry powder 1 pinch cayenne pepper 60g white wine vinegar 120g water 80g ground almonds 300g vegetable oil Salt Ground black pepper Olive oil

Method For the chicken 1 Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper. 2 Place a large frying pan on a high heat and add a splash of olive oil, place the chicken breast skin side down and fry until the skin is golden brown, flip the chicken over. 3 Add the white wine, butter, 1 clove of garlic and the rosemary. Put the pan in a pre-heated oven at 180°C and cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 75°C. Once cooked leave the chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes.

For the satsivi sauce 4 Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan and grind in a pestle and mortar with the curry powder and cayenne pepper. 5 In a food processor combine the walnuts, water, spices, garlic clove, ground almonds, mustard and vinegar until smooth. 6 Slowly emulsify the vegetable oil with the walnut paste to create the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 7 Serve your chicken breast with roasted potatoes, pan-fried winter greens and a generous helping of your walnut satsivi sauce.

Enjoy.

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM

James Hull, The Story Pig

As I write, it’s five in the morning, it’s dark as a bag outside – but mild. The fire is slowly coming to life and the kettle is steaming to a boil. Why am I up so early, you may ask? Well I’m always up early and this morning I am just about to take my trusty head torch, let Blue out and trudge up the drive to do an early morning check on our latest batch of pregnant sows. They are a lovely bunch of expectant mums, bellies swollen and hanging low, behaving quietly now, just patiently waiting their turn.... That is until I turn up to feed them, then they put on an amazing turn of speed and, with their enormous bulk, try and conspire to knock me over. When I checked them late last night one of them was in a shed on her own, gently grunting to herself, busy moving the straw about. They cleverly grab huge mouthfuls and carry it to where they need it. They use their front feet as well, pulling and pushing until, incredibly, they have built a perfect nest with them lying on their side in the middle. I must admit some are better at this than others, some building a structure worthy of a grade 2 listing and some working more on the prefab idea! This is how it should be, but still most of the pigs produced in our country and across the world are born in sterile indoor settings, with no natural light, no straw or bedding of any kind, with the mother kept in a crate and unable to turn around for the whole length of her time with her piglets (about three weeks). We are not part of that world… thankfully.

Charlotte and I crept up and through the gate, quietly, not wanting to disturb the new mum. Peeping in through the doorway, she was lying facing away from us, protecting her piglets from the weather and any predators, gently grunting and talking to her babies as they quietly suckled from her swollen udder. This is her 5th litter and she is a professional mum – she knows exactly what to do and how to keep her babies safe. We couldn’t quite count all the piglets but I guess that there are about 10, which is a great Tamworth litter. We just have to wait for her sisters to do the same now – there are five more ready to pop in the next day or so.

Over the last three weeks this process has been taking place countless times, we have had 9 more farrow (pregnant), with differing levels of success. All these were new gilts, never having farrowed before, some take to it straight away, the odd one really doesn’t understand and takes a few days to settle into their new role as mum. We have had one gilt who was not even pregnant decide she was a mum and try to steal new born piglets for herself. We took her away twice and she escaped over the electric fences and back again. And so it continues, the cycle of life, our numbers have swelled again.

The other highlight of the last few weeks has been freezing cold weather - all our pigs’ water has frozen solid, and no hope of it thawing in the daytime. When this happens it adds another job to the never-ending list, taking water to the pigs, thankfully when it’s cold they, like us, don’t drink much. But at least we have had a few days with that big, yellow thing in the sky above us.

thestorypig.co.uk

Statue of St. Stephen, Budapest, Hungary

Hitdelight/Shutterstock

ST STEPHENS DAY

David Copp

Iam writing this on the feast day of St Stephen, the first and great Christian martyr who is also the patron saint of Hungary, a country I came to love during my five years residence in the 1990’s.

Early Hungarian history is colourful to say the least, but the history of its wine trade goes back to the coronation of King Stephen on the first day of January 1000 CE.

Stephen's coronation in Rome was a huge step forward from the days when hordes of hardy horsemen from the land between the Volga and the Urals, swept through the Carpathian Mountains to occupy the fertile lands they encircled.

The Magyars were horse and cattle breeders who, ignorant to the ways of trade, simply took what they wanted. They had perfected a combat style that made them almost unbeatable, built on speed, surprise and the accuracy with which they could fire their arrows from the saddle.

The Magyars supplemented their mercenary income with rapid pillaging raids into the richer parts of northern Europe, filling their saddlebags with gold,

silver and precious stones and leaving as quickly as they came.

It took the best part of a century for the German tribes to learn how to withstand them by unifying their armies in front of walled towns. When they did so at Augsberg in 955 they routed the Magyars and killed their leaders.

The Magyars retired to lick their wounds and elect a new leader, Prince Geza. He decided that it was time for his people to change their nomadic life style. To emphasise his peaceful intentions he gave up their territorial gains and invited Bavarian Bishops to teach his tribesmen the Christian way of life. Geza underlined his commitment by sending his son Stephen to be educated by the Christians and arranging a dynastic marriage with the daughter of the Bavarian Duke Henry, soon to become Holy Roman Emperor.

By any standard Stephen (or Istvan as he was known) became an outstanding king despite his late father’s somewhat ambivalent stance. When asked if he was Christian or pagan, Geza replied that he was rich enough to be both!

Stephen, crowned on the first of January of the new millennium, invited the Benedictines to establish abbeys and churches throughout Hungary, share their agricultural skills and knowledge, and help transform the new kingdom into a settled society.

During Stephen’s long reign he encouraged the Cistercians from Cluny to help with viticultural development. They had systematically studied the relationship between soil, climate and grape variety and their diligent and perceptive husbandry raised viniculture to an agronomic art-form.

Some 990 years later, when I arrived in Hungary, the Berlin Wall had been dismantled but the Hungarian wine industry had been wrecked by almost a century of war or occupation. A fresh start was vital. There was huge enthusiasm but few growers had much in the way of land, equipment or capital. Fortunately, their prime assets – their soils, climate and innate skills, attracted investment. But the driving force was the Hungarian determination to express the personality of their own vineyards in their own way.

They resurrected their own distinctive varieties – white grapes such as Furmint, Harslevelu and Irsai Oliver and reds such as Kekfrankos (a central European variety called Blaufrankisch in Austria) and Kadarka. Furmint, Harslevelu and Muscat combined to make the great late harvest wines of Tokaj.

More importantly, their own truly world class winemakers such as Istvan Szepsy, Attila Gere, Joseph Bock, Csaba Malatinsky, Gyorgy Lorincz and Laszlo Mezsaros showed the world what they could do. They have all contributed to the success of Hungarian wine trade over the last 30 years and have some outstanding offerings. Because varietal names are different beyond Chardonnay and Cabernet I would encourage those who have not yet discovered them to have a chat with their preferred suppliers and find a starting point. Hungarian wine is a true adventure and includes some wonderful surprises.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Mád Dry Furmint, Tokaji £14.75 Vineyards Based in the village of Mád, in the heart of the Tokaji region, Mád Wine KFT are intent on putting Dry Furmint on the map and toil the vineyards shaped by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. Somewhere between Loire Chenin and Chablis in style, this refreshing white wine expresses both the varietal character of the Furmint variety and the typical minerality of the vineyards of Mád village. Well structured and well balanced, a wonderfully elegant blend of apricot and peaches with a warming, ginger spice.

Koch Kékfrankos, Hajós-Bajai £12.00 Vineyards The Koch family winery has a rich heritage dating back to 1748 and is headed up by the very successful Koch Csaba who celebrates a minimal intervention approach to his winemaking. This Kékfrankos is a firm favourite of ours with a cheese & charcuterie board – it has rich, deep hedgerow fruit and subtle black pepper notes that play on the palate. Very smooth tannins and very drinkable!

vineyardsofsherborne.co.uk