THE finishing touches have been applied to a Dorset entry for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

Top scenic artist Jonathan Holbrook worked his magic on the entry by Piddlehinton hutmakers Plankbridge.

The firm has built a shepherd’s hut, which will act as a writer’s retreat in its Dorset wild flower garden.

Mr Holbrook – who has worked in film and television on the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Golden Compass and Lark Rise to Candleford – was asked to make the new hand-built hut look as though it had been used for three years.

Mr Holbrook said: ‘I have lots of secret recipes that I keep in my head, and whole menus that I’ve built up.

“With this hut, all my training over the years has come together, lots of knowledge and use of waxes and stains and colours and fixatives.”

He added: “There’s a light area on the floor where the writer would have paced up and down thinking about what to write.

“There are chair scrapes and bashes from over the years where the chair has rubbed against the wall.

“The leather writing surface on the desk is slightly dented and waxed.

“There’s a good build up of mist on the windows, there’s smoke from the stove and dust on the lamp, the metalwork has faded and the paint’s gone matt… I’ve gone round everything!”

During the show best-selling author Tracy Chevalier, who has a home in the Piddle Valley, will spend a day in the hut as writer-in-residence and helped influence the design of the hut.

Plankbridge’s show garden has been designed by triple Chelsea Gold Medal winners Jonathan Smith and Adam Woolcott and will form the setting for the first shepherd’s hut to feature in a show garden at Chelsea.

Mr Holbrook said: “I hope people will see it as a warm and lovely place to escape to, the ideal thing to have at the bottom of your garden.”