Children at King’s Ely Acremont Pre-Prep arrived at school yesterday (November 7th) to discover something magical at the bottom of the garden… Their very own ‘Hobbit Hut’!
The beautiful new play facility has been erected during the half-term break by Artisan Structures, the same local company that built Acremont’s Tree House.
Our ‘Hobbit Hut’ boasts a wonderful sedum roof, charming mushrooms and toadstools for the children to sit on, and there is even a china mug from our Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the wall, enabling us to remember this very special year.
The new structure has been built to replace one of the old wooden play houses which had to be decommissioned. As is the case with all of Artisan Structures’ projects, the ‘Hobbit Hut’ has been designed with creativity and sustainability at its heart.
Duncan Dodds, the company’s director, said: “We know how much the team at King’s Ely Acremont love the whimsical, natural style of construction we offer, so we did not hold back on quirky detail with the ‘Hobbit Hut’!
“The sweet chestnut and larch used to build the structure is all from local, well managed coppices. The clay, sand and straw used for the cob wall came from Cambridgeshire farms. Our ethos is to build sustainably, with materials that are local to us. Even the sedum on the roof was grown in Cambridgeshire. Once this starts to grow in the spring, it will create a beautiful blanket of succulents for our pollen loving friends!
“Some of you may recognise the stones used to build the plinth under the cob wall too. These were left over from historical work carried out at Ely Cathedral and they were given to us to use in this project. We felt extremely honoured to be allowed to work them into our design.”
The walkway up to the ‘Hobbit Hut’, the toadstools and mushrooms, and the wooden flowers at the front of the structure have all been made with wood from an old Oak tree on site, which sadly had to be felled as it was diseased.
Duncan said: “We even used some of the very thin branches of the felled oak tree to make the stems for the whittled hazel flower heads (the purple ones were dipped in beetroot juice!). We hope the children enjoy this structure as much as we enjoyed building it.”
Thank you so much to Duncan and his team at Artisan Structures – we absolutely love it!