My sheddie : Mandy and Smudge

mandy and smudge are the joyous owners of the Pub Shed Forge and Flagon and here are their answers.

Sheddies name
Mandy and smudge

Shed name
Forge and Flagon

Selfbuild or off the shelf shed?

The Forge and Flagon started off it’s day as an old 1950’s garage, storage space and a chicken shed. It was reborn in 2005 as a pub shed, it took 4 weeks to complete and cost in total over the past 2 years £200.

Why have you got a shed?

The Forge and Flagon Pubshed is one of the most happening music havens in the Midlands. We have just finished recording 4 one hour radio shows, called ‘LIVE AT THE FORGE’. The show was sponsored by ADSA Collegue Circle and we also included Beer ads for our local Bells Brewery, who very kindly in return provided the beer for all of the singers and musicians. The musicians and singers that performed in the Forge are our regulars who have been playing on the professional music scene for many many numbers of years, playing with and alongside, Dr Feelgood, Nine Below Zero, Real Thing, Ben E King, Rose Royce, Dirty Robbers, Razors, Shalamar, Woodstock and not forgetting Johny Pugh and Streetwise. We are so honoured to have had you all down here thanks a million guys.

Best job in the world being LANDLADY OF THE FORGE.

How would you describe your shed?

The Forge and Flagon is best described as a 1940’s pub with old genuine pub memorabilia. We have a piano, 2 large pub tables, Old working fireplace for those summer evenings!!!. Large bar complete with genuine pub stools and pumps, a stuffed moose called ‘BERNARD’ who watches over everyone at the bar and a host of musical instuments including a washboard. The Forge and Flagon has been widely sort after by the press but so far so good it has been hidden well, especially after the Radio Show. The Forge regulars are sworn to secrecy as to where it is,this helps the magic of the Forge to live on.

Who are your shed inspirations?

My mother in law and father in law, ran the George and Dragon in Broughton Astley for 15 years, this is where Smudge grew up, hence the Forge and Flagon being named after the George and Dragon. We were left a box of brasses after they passed away, so this was the inspiration of the pub shed. They are behind our bar in the SPIRITS they would have ben so proud.

Future Shed plans

We will be recording again soon and plan to release an album from the Forge featuring all of the singers and musicians, called ‘Live and Half Cut’. We have recently extended the front of the Forge by 4 foot by opening the original doors and adding a roof and a front, you can see the before and after photos on our pubshed photos.

How did you find out about our community?

We were curious when we had completed the Forge and Flagon to see if there were any other odd people like ourselves who make pubs out of their sheds and wow were we suprised, we have kept in touch with a lot of the other pubshed landlords and landladys, there is a great sense of pub community between us all, you only have to read all of the comments made to all of the sheds to see that, I am really proud to be part of the Pub shed category, and so are all of my regulars, we have a lot of followers that look at readersheds.

What word would you use to sum up Sheds

Our Magical Music Haven

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