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Shed of the Year judge has a great video giving an insight into his life and it also shows a brief clip of his shed/workshop and profiles the book Inventing for Dummies.
I can now announce that our shed friends at thecheeseshed and make mine a builders tea have given some great prizes to give to the Shed of the year winner.
A ‘Small Wonders‘ Box of Cheese from the official cheese mongers to Shed Week, the Cheese Shed
Ian from the cheeseshed has picked a choice of great West Country cheeses for the shed winner.
The cheeseshed is celebrating the artisan cheese of the West country, based on our enthusiasm for the great range of cheeses produced around us, many of which are up there with the best in the world. We’re particularly keen to include artisan cheeses, coming from small makers using traditional methods.
20 packs of Make Mine a Builders tea (1600 teabags!!!)
Builders have known it for years, a good, strong, refreshing cup of tea is the best way to quench a thirst. Now the British public can enjoy a real Builder’s brew with Make Mine a Builders; developed specifically for Builder’s Tea drinkers and tested by a panel of 300 Builders to get their seal of approval.
A good Builder doesn’t scrimp on quality tools therefore Make Mine a Builders is an ethically sourced tea made from East African leaves, the perfect balance of strength and refreshment.
The tea is available at Asda for £1.40 a pack.
Shed Judge Trevor Baylis’s production company has provided a great LED ECO LANTERN to the winner.
The LED ECO LANTERNâ„¢ is a new and unique idea from the TCL design team. It can be hand wound anytime, anyplace! (Optional 2-way power, can recharge from mains, or recharge from 12v car socket.
It utilises state-of-the-art LED technology and an eco-friendly winding mechanism to create 20 minutes of ambient light from every 1 minute of winding. A full wind gives an incredible 4 hours of continuous light and you will never need to replace a bulb or battery — so no future costs and guaranteed light when you need it.
of course if you product is beer I may want to get a sample!.
‘Another exciting year for sheddies - this competition is a beautiful example of how the British are not just skilled craftsmen but have great imaginations not to mention excellent senses of humour’
Sarah Beeny
The beauty of a garden office is that it combines the popular yearning for a pastoral ideal with the practicalities of technological development and guards our privacy in the way that an open-plan office – even if you call it something exciting like a ‘den’ or a ‘hive’ – never can. .
Alex from shedworking.co.uk
It’s fantastic that beach huts are getting in on the competition this year. Unlike sheddies, beach hut owners often have to work within restrictions about size and colour yet they still manage to create some wonderfully individual seaside hideaways.’ Dr Kathryn Ferry
‘My shed is much more than a place to store the garden tools.’ - Tony : Shed of the year 2007 winner
Trevor Baylis is an inventor whose most famous invention is a wind-up radio. Aged 70, he runs Trevor Baylis Brands, a company dedicated to aiding inventors.
“When I picked up the box of Lego I did wonder what I was going to do with it. I thought that the obvious thing would be to make a building but that’s a bit boring. Then I looked around my workshop – the graveyard of a thousand domestic appliances – and I said, ‘Blimey, this is perfect’, so I’ve made a reproduction of my workshop.
“There’s my workbench with my lathe on it, my pillar drill, my grinding wheel, my grindstone, a computer and a first-aid box. It was a bit of fun, and you know what, I can understand why kids play with it: it’s good stuff.
“I’m a Meccano man, simply because Lego wasn’t around when I was born. I couldn’t write my name but I could do the most amazing things with Meccano and I could tell you what bolt, what washer, gear and goodness knows what by the time I was five. There’s an expression I like, ‘chance favours the prepared mind’. It means that there are certain skills in your life you’ll never forget, and they are the sort of skills that Lego and Meccano give you.”
Share your shed for “Shed of the Year 2008″ and win £500 worth of prizes.
The race is on to win the coveted Shed of the Year title which will be held this summer as part of the second National Shed Week.
We are very pleased to announce that one of the UK’s leading online garden building companies, Garden Buildings Directwill be the official sponsor and shed partner for this year’s Shed Week and will be providing the grand prize for the Shed of the Year Competition.
The grand prize will total £500 and the winner will be able to choose products from Garden Buildings Direct or products from one of their sister websites selling extensive ranges of garden furniture, outdoor toys, fitness equipment and BBQ’s.
Organised by the internationally famous readersheds.co.uk, National Shed Week (which runs from July 7 until July 13 2008) will celebrate one of the cornerstones of British culture, the not so humble Garden Shed.
Can this year’s sheddies beat the wonderful and unique sheds that we showcased in the inaugural Shed Week last year, including the amazing Shed of the Year 2007 which was a Roman Temple built by Tony Rogers?
This year’s judges are property guru Sarah Beeny, wind-up radio inventor Trevor Baylis, Professor of beach huts Kathryn Ferry and Shedworking expert Alex Johnson, Eco-architect Lloyd Alter and to give his sheddies eye view last years winner Tony Rogers.
Sheddies are still welcome to “Share their Sheds” and can enter their buildings on the website ready for the judging in Late June.
About the sponsor
Garden Buildings Direct is part of a number of websites owned by Kybotech Ltd started in 2000, however the business family tree goes back to 1878. Charles & William Walton are the 5th generation of the Walton family connected with the manufacturing of garden buildings and garden related products, based in Sutton-on-Trent the centre for garden buildings since 1927.
They are an online retailer who successfully operate a family of home, garden and leisure retail brands:
Their main product lines go under the brand name of BillyOh.com with ranges of Wooden Sheds, Plastic Garden Sheds, Metal Garden Sheds, Summerhouses, Metal Greenhouses, Wooden Garden Storage, Plastic Garden Storage, Gazebos, Home Offices, Shed Security, Shed Electrics and Arbours as well as garden furniture and BBQ’s.
About National Shed Week
This is the second year we have run the competition which pits wooden sheds against TARDIS, garden offices against beach huts in a battle royal to win the title of Shed of the Year 2008.
After the success of last year’s Shed Week and the great reaction we got from press and the public, Sarah Beeny has agreed to become a judge again, along with inventor and entrepreneur Trevor Baylis.
They are joined by Shedworking expert Alex Johnson, Kathryn Ferry who is a beach hut expert and Treehugger and Eco-housing guru Lloyd Alter.
To get access to hires images and more information on Shed week go to our press section
A grand age for a sheddie, just getting to his prime!
You can buy them from Natural Collection
The UK-IPO’s Cracking Ideas 2008 is launched today at the Education Show being held at Birmingham’s NEC.
Cracking Ideas offers teachers resources and activities for the classroom through a website http://www.crackingideas.com The resources link to a nationwide competition to find the inventors of tomorrow. Children aged 9-11 will be encouraged to come up with a new invention - with the emphasis on something eco friendly.
The campaign is backed by Oscar(r) winners Wallace & Gromit and uses inspiration from their new film A Matter of Loaf and Death and features their own green inventions. Prizes for the winning schools include a special screening of the new film.
Minister for Intellectual Property Baroness Delyth Morgan said it was an important initiative to get children thinking about innovation at an early age.
Trevor Baylis, one of Britain’s most famous inventors, has recently launched the innovative Eco Media Player. The inventor of the Wind-up Radio has brought the idea to a modern media player which stores 500 songs and comes with a radio and torch. It plays music for 20 hours before it needs to be charged - and this is done by cranking a fold-up handle at the rear rather than plugging it in.
I recently ask Trevor some questions mostly shed related but of course some about his inventions.
His workshop sounds great, just got to get him to share it when he has time.
Q1) When did you first start inventing or making things?
A. When I was a child I could do the most amazing things with my Meccano but I couldn’t even write my name. I was five years old.
Q2) Did your workshop/shed play a major part in your ideas process?
A. Certainly – my workshop contains a multitude of machines, and is the graveyard of 1000 domestic appliances. I have a small tv, a computer should I need it, and of course a radio. And I can always sit down in a comfortable chair and smoke my pipe, and can always have a cup of tea when I want one.
Q3) What one bit of advice would you give to sheddie inventors?
A. Let your dreams be your inspiration, and a springboard for great actions.
Q4) You were Pipe Smoker of the Year a few years ago.. will you be coming up with a smoker’s device to get over the recent changes in the law?
A. Well, I certainly won’t be smoking outside my shed, but I might put a fan in the window.
Q5) With your eco self-powered inventions and green credentials before it was fashionable, do you feel the rest of the industry is playing catchup?
A. To an extent, yes! And I am very proud that they are.
Q6) What’s the future for shed-based inventors or do you see the demise of the one man in his workshop?
A. I believe those people who have sheds, studios, or laboratories, are the lucky ones. It is great for a man or a woman to have a retreat or somewhere to chill out and ferment. This will always be a necessity in life for people.
Q7) What would be your ultimate bolthole/shed-away-from-it-all and where would it be?
A. I wouldn’t want to walk down a garden to get to my retreat – mine is attached to my house. If I want to go into my studio in the night when I have that bright idea, I am able to do so without having to wear wellington boots. My studio has stunning views of the river, is cosy, and believe it or not – the floor has a carpet!!!
And to finish, some questions from sheddies:
Q: If your shed was on fire, what one thing would you save?
(From Alex from Shedworking.co.uk)
A. Undoubtedly, my first prototype wind-up radio, which also functions as a wind-up torch and mobile phone charger.
Q: Has your moustache ever got tangled up in one of those new fangled wind-up radios (From Chris)
A. My moustache never entwined with the machinery but a spark or two from my pipe could have easily given me a harelip, then I might have taken a turn for the nurse.
Many thanks Trevor.
You can read more about Trevor Baylis and his products over at http://www.trevorbaylisbrands.com/, which has some great advice for sheddie inventors and of course details of the products, Trev has been involved with.
and of course keep an eye on this shedblog for Trevor Related posts.
I have mentioned my exploits at getting Mrs UW’s summerhouse lite up, but was looking for something else, and those nice people over at tcl products the people who manufacture trev’s stuff, kindly send me one to try out, so there are some benefits running the worlds sheddiest website.
anyway my mini review.. trying not to be biased..
It was like Shedmas all over again, could not wait to open the lamp and crank it up, ok I need to get a life but gadgets in boxes make me happy.
The product has trevor’s signature on it and his mug on the box, alas without his trademark pipe, and the now standard in these products the wonderful wind up crank at the bottom, I had to wind it up for about 3 minutes beforehand, but then they say it will give you 20mins of light for 1 mins winding.
Its not going to light up your whole shed, but as a standby and for reading in the shed, I think it will be an great addition to the lighting arsenal.
It has 5 X LED lights with standby glow light
if you can’t be bother to wind it up then it comes with a 12v in car charger as well, so useful for camping and out and about if your need some quick lighting, maybe when theres a power cut.
also its looks a bit like a crystal ball, so you can always earn some cash telling fortunes from your shed.
It’s great to see these windup products coming out and its all thanks to one man and his idea of a wind up radio..
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