The Making of
The Wagon & The Wigwam Hot Tub

A word from the creator

The Wagon & The Wigwam was designed and built by myself, Ralph.

I love the creative use of natural timber, using old materials and upcycling them.

Wagon in the Woods, Wagon and the Wigwam, Bluebird and The Horse Hut are more of a passion than a job — I love designing and making beautiful places for people to enjoy.

Timeline

• The Bluebird Penthouse & Land Rover Hot Tub was my first project, launched 11 Feb 2016.
• Then followed Wagon in the Woods, which we somehow launched to the public before the Bluebird in Nov 2015.
• In Feb 2018, we launched Wagon & the Wigwam on the same site as the Wagon in the Woods.
• The last, The Horse Hut and Lotus Spa, was ready in March 2020 — a week before lockdown!

How it started

The Wagon & The Wigwam is situated in the grounds of our family home. We started with the Bluebird, then built the Wagon in the Woods and then added the hot tub to it. When the bookings picked up with the hot tub, we then added a hot tub to the Bluebird.

So, when it came to The Wagon & The Wigwam, I wanted to go even bigger space with an even bigger hot tub this time. Go big or go home!

Where we are now

My wonderful wife Lucy works as a physiotherapist and is my creative sounding-board. Myself and Lucy have now moved to Devon and are starting on the next little places!

Joy, your host

My sister Joy has now taken over the running of the Wagons and The Horse Hut.

Joy brings her background as an artist and more recently working for the National Trust to keep guest experience going and add some extra artistic input.

And here’s to you, our guests!

We hope that you truly enjoy your stay whilst you are with us and that you find peace, rest and inspiration here.

Each booking enables us to develop the existing projects and increase the creative ideas for new ones. By staying, you are helping make this happen. Thank you!

— Ralph

Videos

Video tour with Freedom Strider

A 10 minute interview and walkthrough of how the Wigwam was made!

Building the Wigwam Hot Tub

Having built the Wagon in the Woods it was great to be able to take what I had learnt and push the creative boundaries.

Assembling the Wigwam

Having learnt a lot from the Land Rover Hot Tub and the Wine Barrel Hot Tub, we first started with an even bigger idea for this one…

We really wanted to put the hot tub in a shelter in case the weather was typically British.

The trees for the Wigwam all came from our woods.

Collecting the poles for the Wigwam from our woodland at Plum Cottage. Handmade and home grown!

Ever built your own teepee or wigwam?

I won’t pretend it didn’t get rather exciting getting them all together!

The wood around the hot tub

The wood around the top of the hot tub came from a convent in London.

The huge ‘Cedar of Lebanon’ trees had to come down as they were deemed too big! The nuns were sad to see such magnificent and ancient trees go, so I planked up the timber so they could have some tables made.

I was able to keep some cedar slabs to build the surround of the hot tub.

No small challenge

Glazing the roof and sinking the hot tub into the ground were no small challenges but definitely worth it in the end.

The birds love to sit on top of the Wigwam - if you’re unlucky enough to be in the Wigwam when the woodpecker turns up you won’t miss it, it’s like a huge drum!

The ‘Sal-loo-n toilet’

Exit the ‘Sal-loo-n toilet’ with cowboy swagger. Our saloon swinging doors have you covered.

We are still decorating the inside with corks from guests (and maybe eleven or twelve from Lucy and I - promise they’re not all ours!).

Leave us your corks and they will become part of the Wigwam heritage!

Building the Wagon

With the bulk of the Wigwam complete, it was time to get the Wagon rolling.

Always heavily insulated so it stays warm in colder seasons.

The wheels

The wheels came from Lucy’s family farm where her Grandfather had dumped a horse-drawn plough in the woods as a young man. He could not believe we wanted the wheels, saying:

“Best day of my life when I got rid of that old thing.”

The tree window

The tree in the window came from the idea of putting one branch up the middle of the window perhaps with one or two branches off it.

When we felled a beech tree that had become too big and was shading the vegetable patch. We just had to try and put the whole thing in the window!

Well, almost the whole thing.

Cousin Ollie helped build the Wagon — we almost gave up several times trying to drag the tree to the window as it was crazy heavy.

Slowly taking shape.

And the finished product! Adorned with fairy lights…

…and little birds on the branches.

Stained glass windows.

Sourced from a local farm house.

Local timber

As much local timber was used as possible.

Such as the oak tree holding up the bed and star lounge.

The big planks making the bedhead, table etc. were all cut from huge logs with an enormous chainsaw and a lot of sweat!

Each plank is unique and each one is selected specially for its use and position.

The Whiskey Barrel

The whiskey barrel used for the basin came from a distillery in Scotland.

When it arrived I cut a hole in the top, stuck my head in and took a deep breath. (Whiskey in barrels is about 60% alcohol. Being cask strength, the barrel was basically full of alcohol vapour). I felt very dizzy and had to sit down for a while, then got a real headache - yup I got drunk and then went straight to hangover in a matter of minutes!

For months afterwards the Wagon had a lovely whiskey aroma.

It took over two years to build the Wagon and do all the landscaping. Not to say that it’s finished… ideas keep popping up!

Keeping the Wagon green!

We recently connected up storage tanks and filtration so we can pump out the hot tub water between guests and reuse it to flush the toilets and irrigate the garden.

We also capture rain water and mix it with the old hot tub water. That means we can change the water in the hot tub and not waste the huge amount of water while flushing perfectly good drinking water down the loo!

Wagon painting

The main painting on the wall by the door is by Gill Drew; a talented local artist.

Featuring the kettle reflecting the tree window. If you would like a memento of your stay you can order prints at gilldrew.co.uk

Original photo by Chris Law

The painting is based upon a beautiful photo taken in February 2018 by Chris Law.