On a night out in July 2000 in an unnamed Cardiff pub, myself and a couple of friends got talking about “How great sheds were” and I said I’m looking for a new one but there were no websites that show you sheds that people have created themselves to inspire you with your build or purchasing decisions.
So with a fuzzy head on July 3rd 2000 I registered the domain name readersheds.co.uk, (I spelt it with only one S, I did say I had a fuzzy head and my spelling has always been unique), so the journey to create a website where readers would show me pictures of their sheds had started
I then spend the next year of my spare time trying to convince people to SHARE THEIR SHEDS – mostly I got told I was weird but sometimes people loved the idea.
The fascination with Garden Sheds, which started with my grandfather’s Rhondda allotment & shed(s) were a big part of my youth, I was able to relive those great sheds by creating a platform for sheddies to show off their online.
I was getting a few mentions in the local media and people saw it on teletext (as your dad kids) and then after a few years of brilliant sheds, in 2007 I came up with the idea & then the creation of the Shed of the year competition to celebrate what is great about the good old British Sheds – not only the shed but the sheddie behind the shed and the rest is shed history!
IN all those Twenty years I have seen many things in the shed world come and go, then come back, then give it another go for good luck, including some of these below but it was always about the sheds and the sheddies.
ManCaves ( Blokes sheds, sheds or just places to put the lawnmower, The seminal book Men and sheds was a great inspiration.)
She Sheds (Sometimes a lot more creative than the blokes but it always appears as if it’s a new thing, the ladies sheddies have always been doing it and better than us for years)
Eco Sheds (green roofs, Solar and built from recycled and upcycled materials is more mainstream today than it was 20 years ago)
International sheds and sheddies (It was not just US in the UK now that GOT sheds)
Pub Sheds which of course people have “only” just found out about in the 2020 lockdown!.
Writing Sheds (We have tried to cover these as my favourite shed in the world is one – but our friend and sheddie Alex is the expert on these and runs the other shed blog)
Celebrity Judges (It started with TV’s Sarah Beeny, shed inventor Trevor Baylis , DJ Chris Evans and even top writer and shed worker Neil Gaiman
A TV show! (With the Amazing George Clarke and his brilliant team)
But after all that, we have seen an amazing community of sheddies who work hard and design and build stunning structures down the bottom of their gardens that they are rightly proud of, some weird and wonderful creations but all brilliant.
So just to say thank you to everyone who has joined me on my Shed journey for the last 20 years and a big thank you to our Sponsors Cuprinol who without their support I could not carry on doing this shed stuff – lets hope there will be another 20 years of me looking at your sheds and people shouting #NOTASHED at my posts on social media
