The build quality of Mallons huts has ensured that centenarian examples survive in considerable numbers in East Anglia

 

 

Mr Robert Carver, Shepherd with a large Mallon's style hut near Mundford c1900

 

 

A  8'x6' Mallons hut sitting on an estate near Mundford awaiting restoration

  

The interior of hut above, the cupboard is home to a Barn Owl who flew out over my head! 

 

We were called to have a look at a small Mallons hut whose owner was thinking of restoring it. The estate sits on the edge of the Brecks, a one time massive Sheep rearing area. Indeed the estate is enlarging its flock and it was the Shepherd that took me out to see one of two huts that remain on the estate. This old girl isn't destined to become home for the Shepherd however, it will be restored at some stage to sit near the farmhouse on the lawn.

 

 

 

This Mallons hut sits on a fruit farm in N Norfolk     This poor hut sits beside the road near Bircham

 

The hut on the left used to sit beside the N Norfolk coast road at Wiveton where fresh strawberries are sold in the Summer months. I have been told that generations of young farmers used to ride down the hill in this one after a night out drinking in Cley. Maybe that's why it got moved to the back of the farm? It was the first hut I ever saw as I passed along the road as a teenager.

 

While searching for a source of corrugated Iron for the roof of our first hut, I was accompanying a local Agricultural engineer to look at a pile of curved Pig Ark tin, when from the corner of my eye I spotted a lovely, albeit sad Mallons Shepherds hut hiding behind a Nissan hut. It had been one of two used on the Farm and was full of old Tractor spares. The owner agreed to donate the hut to a good cause, on the understanding it would be restored and stay locally in Norfolk. The other hut is still in use and is full of Pheasant feed, but with its wheels lying nearby.

 The Wheels are beyond repair but three of the four sides are salvageable. The Lamb rack was still present inside the hut, buried under piles of Massey Ferguson, Dexter and Fordson bits and pieces. I have now reduced the hut to its component parts and discovered a hidden treasure while pulling the hut apart. Under each thin strip of wood covering the gap between the cladding boards on the inside of the hut are five layers of Newspaper. I can only deduce that the paper was used for insulation when the hut was built. And yes I have found a date on the newspaper; it's 1892, which ties up exactly with the advertisement found in an Old Jarrold farm daybook while researching the history of yet another hut on a nearby Farm. Restoration will begin on the Mallons hut in 2009.