Some nice mentions of the Category Winners of Shed of the year in today’s papers.

The Independent talks about the rise of Lady sheddies.

The long march to equality has finally reached the back garden. Sheds are no longer a male preserve, according to new evidence that suggests women are tearing down felt roofs as quickly as they crack glass ceilings.

Nearly half of the sheds vying to become Shed of the Year, when the winner of a national competition is unveiled tomorrow, are owned by women, according to Andrew Wilcox , of readersheds.co.uk. “Sheds have always been masculine places, but the number of lady sheddies is increasing,” he said.

Sarah Beeny, the TV presenter and property developer who is helping to judge the competition, said: “Sheds are probably the last male domain that we’ve finally taken over. There’s nowhere for them to retreat now.”

Herald in Scotland mentions the Pub Shed Three Steps

ARE you planning to do something special in your shed this week?

Those fortunate enough to have a garden, and one complete with its own edifice, will surely already know that National Shed Week starts tomorrow.

To the uninitiated, this may seem like a lot of fuss about a few planks of wood, but the humble shed has a long, proud history in British culture and we shouldn’t grudge it a little celebration.

Predominantly a male domain, the shed of yesteryear provided manspace for a henpecked husband to gather his thoughts, smoke his pipe without complaint, avoid visitors and indulge in a spot of OCD, arranging his tools in alphabetical order, a kind of precursor to the age of album collections. They were the wooden sanctuaries that took the place of the privy when modern plumbing rendered that haven of peace and quiet obsolete.

If you see Shed Week mentioned in your local trumpet of truth, contact me

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We have got some good coverage initially online (Twitter was the one of the biggest traffic drivers, thanks #shedweek)

The funniest mention so far about shed week is from SkySports on the Ashes in Cardiff

14.03:”A nice little partnership developing between Pietersen and Collingwood. There were good starts for Strauss Cook and Bopara – but they’re all back in the shed. Well, it is national shed week this week.”

Bumble points out that the Ashes isn’t the only big event taking place in the UK at the moment.

Lot of American design/odd blogs sending loads of traffic, including Apartment Therapy, Dave Barry (Miami herald), Treehugger, Makezine thanks you lot…

And now today in the British newspapers/website

BBC Wales reports on the shed and does a picture gallery.

The Telegraph – Artist wins Shed of the Year

The Guardian -A shed to make any man spit with envy

Independent And Shed of the Year 2009 goes to…

WalesOnline – Welsh winner for Shed of the Year 2009

We have also been mentioned on various radio stations, radio2 and 5live plus I have been interviewed on a few local comemrcial stations.

If you see Shed Week mentioned in a national newspaper or your local paper or anywhere at all , please let me know.

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The basildon recorder reports on one of our sheddie and his hope in this years Shed of the year.

Reg’s shed

AN Englishman’s home might be his castle, but for one Southend grandfather it’s his shed that claims the title.

Reg Miller, 64, has spent the past 18 months converting his garden shed into a Caribbean pirate ship paradise, complete with dead man’s chest, rigging and the Jolly Roger.

The shed, which sails under the moniker the Lady Sarah Out of Worthing, is a firm favourite with Mr Miller’s five grandchildren and he has now entered it into the Shed of the Year 2009 competition.

Mr Miller, of Bournemouth Park Road, said: “The grandchildren love it. They think it’s their own captain’s cabin. It’s got everything from muskets, bones and rigging, to its own flag.”

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The Daily UK Metro newspaper theridiculant column online is not convinced that Chris Evans is a shed judge

In their paper versions they do not mention their uncertainty

As long as you sheddies know the truth! but thanks for the coverage everything is welcome to see the best sheds on the web.

I suppose that’s the job of the nationals, hopefully some commuters will want to share their sheds ASAP for the closing date.

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Today in the Times, Kate Muir writes about sheds, sheds week and interviews my good self.

Across the nation, in back gardens and allotments, excitement is in the spring air, for now is the time to enter the Shed of the Year 2009. Your shed need not be expensive, but it has to show ingenuity, eccentricity or cack-handed exuberance to win, if previous competition entries are typical. We shed-lovers — the technical term is “sheddies” — are fascinated by the art and science of hut erection. We can easily spend a couple of hours ogling readers’ sheds online. The Shed of the Year competition is our Cup Final, our Olympics, our Miss World competition.

This report comes to you by laptop from my humble shed in Cricklewood, North London. It’s painted allotment-regulation green, and has a red velvet baroque chair which I found in a skip, and metal shelves which cost a fiver when Woolworths closed. At £99 from Homebase, and 3ft wide, it is the smallest shed on the allotments and was built by drunks on a dim winter afternoon three years ago. It goes without saying that my shed, like all much-loved sheds, is an escape hatch to a different world.

Unlike my life, my shed is simple, calm and wellorganised: tools hung on nails, seeds in boxes, gardening gloves in pairs: everything where it should be. My shed is prosaic, a glorified allotment locker. I shall not be entering it for Shed of the Year, even in the “Normal Shed” category, because there are far greater works out there, many bordering on the insane.

So why not Share your Shed NOW

Over at the Gaurdian, Shed Judge Alex from Shedworking pens his own piece about Shed Working.

Over the last decade we have witnessed the miniaturisation of the office workplace. A cramped outbuilding which once housed lawnmowers and pots can now comfortably be insulated from the cold, fitted with its own electrics, and link you to anywhere in the world. It’s an alternative workplace revolution. It’s shedworking.

So the broadsheets have sheds covered from from all angles this weekend….

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