An Englishman’s shed is his castle. It’s also, on occasion, his sanctuary, his study and his sleepy-corner hideaway.

Suddenly that handkerchief of lawn in the back garden seemed to have grown to Lords Cricket Ground proportions. Now, it was a warm afternoon, he was carrying a glass of cold beer and his back ached from the morning’s efforts of cleaning the car and carrying in the shopping so he thought he’d pop into the shed to take the weight off – just for a moment…

Zzzzz…

But what else is a shed good for? Ask a woman and she’ll probably suggest something useful such as a place where garden furniture is stored. Or bikes, tools, the cat basket or paint tins.

Ask a man and don’t be surprised if he goes all misty-eyed, gazes into the middle distance and lets out a long, dreamy sigh. The shed is a sacred place plastered with metaphorical ‘do not disturb’ or ‘cross this threshold at your peril’ signs.

Some sheds, it’s true, are workshops. Mini industrial units with a well-used ‘workmate’ bench, shelves neatly stacked with lovingly cared-for tools, tins of screws and nails in varying sizes and a battered old radio tuned to Radio 2.

Others are state-of-the-art, temples to technology complete with flat-screen TV, DVD player, surround sound system, reclining armchair, kitchenette and loo (one where the toilet lid is never in the ‘down’ position). If there’s ever a falling-out with ‘er indoors, this shed is a home from home, roomier and certainly more comfortable than many a student bed-sit.

Writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Dylan Thomas wrote some of their best works in a shed in their gardens and Cezanne created paintings that are now worth millions in a garden ‘studio’ shed.

But if you lack the talent to be able to produce a literary or visual arts masterpiece then there’s always the D-I-Y possibilities.

Sheds were made for woodwork and metalwork. You can make a mess, noise and beautiful things and not get nagged when you don’t clear up afterwards.

You can strip down an ancient motorcycle or a car engine and never bother to put it back together if you don’t want to. Or you can build anything, from a scaled down airfix spitfire to a full size engine for a  micro light aircraft.

Add a skylight to the roof, set up a proper telescope and you can watch the stars all night long from your very own mini observatory. And if there’s enough daylight you can spend hours pottering around the potting shed bringing on tiny seedlings that you have nurtured or those specimen plants that you plan to enter in to the local flower and produce show.

More and more of us are spending at least some of our time working from home. A shed may sound basic but it doesn’t take too much in the way of a conversion to turn it into a home office. Only problem is, how are you going to be able to paint that masterpiece if there’s a great ugly desk in the way…