Garden sheds can have a business function

Garden sheds can be used for a lot more than storing lawnmowers and other equipment, as the case of Pauline Barnett reveals.

The pioneering fundraiser from West Bromwich, who died this week, set up one of the town´s first charity shops in her own timber shed 30 years ago, the Express and Star reports.

According to the newspaper, Mrs Barnett was able to raise £65,000 over 20 years for the Williams Syndrome Foundation by selling second-hand clothes from her shed.

It appears that garden sheds make for a memorable novelty setting for charity shops, with The Shed Store, as it was called, attracting visitors from far and wide.

Speaking to the Express and Star, Mrs Barnett´s daughter Sue said: "People used to come from miles and one woman used to come from Ireland with an empty suitcase to fill up."

Anyone interested in basing their own entrepreneurial endeavors out of their gardens might wish to invest in plastic or secure steel garden sheds.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph wrote this week that gardeners do not need to pack up their sheds for the year just yet, as there are plenty of vegetables that are suited to grow during the colder months.