A former boat builder is making waves with his hybrid handcrafted mobile home creations.

Chris Ward has combined the best elements of a shepherd’s hut with those of a caravan.

The West Dorset craftsman has even coined his own word ‘twagon’- meaning ‘towable wagon’ - to describe his Romany style creation.

Twagons offer the lifestyle that Mr Toad craved in classic children’s book The Wind in the Willows, just without the hassle of a horse to tend to.

Chris makes twagons to order in his Broadwindsor workshop, enabling people to tow their bespoke gypsy caravan to the destination of their dreams.

He mounts a traditional bowtop wagon onto a caravan chassis, which wanderlust travellers can tow from the comfort of their car.

Chris said: “I love building wagons. I studied at the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy and have worked at boatyards across the South West.

“The twagon reminds me of an upturned boat. Boat building uses very similar techniques to wagon building. I like the artistic licence I get creating them.

“There’s not so much call for craftsmanship these days but these traditional wagons seem to be in demand. People want to take them on the road and people are living on the road for various reasons.”

A twagon, which takes Chris eight weeks to make, is modelled on a traditional horse-drawn vehicle.

He can furnish a twagon, if required, with a kitchen, a double bed, a sitting room, storage, a wood burner and can add hand-finished extras and bespoke decoration.

Chris set up his business Wildwood Designs six years ago.

“I was thinking about something I could do that was different and new, I had already worked for horse drawn communities and I realised my skills were easily transferable to wagon building.

“Someone came up to me and said it would be great if I could get a bow top onto a chassis. It’s so much lighter than a caravan, it weighs about 950kg and you can always tow it with a Peugeot 406. It’s about the same size as a shepherd’s hut but instead of having it just sitting in the garden you can take it out on the road. You get a lot more out of it,” he said.

Chris has built six twagons based on customers’ requests and individual needs.

He said: “I built one for a couple who retired and like visiting Argyle. They’ve got a little cottage up there and they take it up there, park it and enjoy the view.”

One of Chris’s clients even lives in a twagon full-time, kept at a smallholding in Devon.

Chris tries to use as many local products as possible to build his twagons from. He hand-cuts the wood he works with.

“The bows are made out of local ash and I use pine from Devon, I do the glass painting myself and a friend of mine, Sarah Harvey, who has spent a lifetime painting gypsy wagons, does the decorative work.

“I think it’s important to use local businesses when you are making something traditional and I believe in quality,” he said.

Interest in his twagons is increasing, Chris said, with the colourful piece of craftmanship drawing a long line of people who wanted to take a look inside at a recent autumn fair at Kingston Lacy house near Wimborne.

He said: “I couldn’t believe that people were queuing up waiting to go in. I probably could have charged them £1!

“I think the twagon has an appeal for many different people. A lot of retired people are interested in taking it on their cars and being mobile.

“It’s just a very authentic thing.”

  • The starting price for a twagon is £14,950. See wildwood-design.org for more information.