A HUMBLE garden hut at a property in the Worcestershire countryside, which started life as a heap of wooden panels salvaged from another structure, has reached the finals of the Shed of the Year 2017 competition.

The Pear Tree Hut, as it is now called, sits in the garden at the home of Pam and Alistair Thompson of Wichenford, near Worcester.

The garden is part of the National Garden Scheme and is open to the public on certain days as well as by appointment and every two years as part of the Wichenford open gardens event – this year on Saturday June 24 and Sunday June 25.

The garden is known for its quirky - mainly recycled - features including a fully restored 1935 red telephone box with working Bakelite phone; a buoy and anchor salvaged from Cornwall; sculptures made out of an old oil tank; a stone cairn monument marking the 70th anniversary of VE Day and a restored Worcester-made “Pumpy” Thomas pump at the well.

Pam, a former traffic officer with West Mercia Police, is passionate about recycling and when in 2012 her garden help Chris Pugh turned up with a pile of wooden panels – the remains of a garden shed being discarded by one of his customers – she couldn’t resist.

Pam said: “It arrived as a pile of junk. Chris said it was a nice shed and there was nothing wrong with it apart from a rotten roof. He persuaded me it would look nice in the garden.”

She bought some new windows for it on eBay, tin for the roof and some insulation material and then set about rebuilding it with the help of builder Chris Genever. “There were no plans, it just evolved. It took about six Saturdays to build and it is a bit smaller than the original.”

But rather than housing garden tools, the shed is furnished with items including a writing desk and a book case inherited from a dear friend of Pam’s who died.

“I lost a very dear friend and I inherited her writing desk and bookcase. It was the perfect place to put them. It is actually a writing room. When I get too old and tired to garden, it will be the perfect retreat,” she said.

She entered it in the Shed of the Year competition in 2014 and didn’t hear anything at the time but earlier this year she had a call from a Channel 4 which airs the Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year programme saying they wanted to come to Wichenford with a film crew.

Pam said: “I thought they must be desperate. It is too modest and humble. I never thought they would come.” But a film crew of six with all its equipment turned up in April and stayed for six hours. She has since heard her shed is into the finals of the competition.

“I am totally amazed that such a tiny humble little shed has attracted so much interest. I told the film crew ‘I cannot believe you are spending six hours filming a little wooden shed in deepest Worcestershire’.

“I think the attraction is that I only bought three things for it – everything else was rescued.” Pear Tree Hut is in the Budget category of the Shed of the Year competition supported by Cuprinol, although Pam would prefer it to be renamed the Recycle section.

Anyone who would like to find out more about it can visit http://www.peartreecottage.me/p/the-pear-hut.html. Voting for the Shed of the Year closes at midday on Friday June 2 and members of the public can vote for Pear Tree Hut by visiting http://www.readersheds.co.uk/share.cfm?SHARESHED=4675.

Pear Tree Cottage will be open to the public through the National Garden Scheme on Sunday June 4 from 12 noon to 6pm and Sunday August 27 from 2pm to 10pm.