Hobbit-like structures could soon sprout up in the South Hams if a local entrepreneur’s dream venture to build distinctive eco-friendly ‘garden rooms’ gets off the ground.

James Bullen, who has previously built about a dozen such dwellings in Wales, is gauging public reaction to see what the demand might be for his fledgling business.

Garden rooms are normally standalone structures, built away from a person’s main home at the bottom of gardens. Sometimes derided as ‘posh sheds’, they nonetheless offer creature comforts and are often far more luxurious.

Having previously built garden rooms for friends in Wales, Mr Bullen recently decided to look at turning his hobby into a business in the local area.

If the business takes off, he said the dwellings will have a low carbon footprint and a distinct Hobbit home appearance.

“The Hobbit home is quite a superficial way in. I think most people have more context (that way). A lot of people haven't seen anything like this apart from in Lord of the Rings,” he said.

“My main interest in them is as eco friendly, ultra affordable homes. This is a more commercial offering and really believing in their very low carbon footprint.”

The decision to ape Hobbit homes was also due to his dislike of hard edges.

“We just haven't grown up around right angles, hard lines and hard edges. Everything in nature is softer. They're also made with very natural materials - that's a huge advantage straightaway on multiple levels,” he added.

The walls are made of straw bales, which he stressed was a good building material.

“The straw bale lasts equally long as any other conventional building material if it's done right. They were used to build houses in Nebraska in the USA in 19th century.”

Ongoing studies on straw homes by the University of Bath have been very positive, citing their durability, and fire-retardant and energy-efficient qualities, concluding that developers and homebuyers can now get insurance and mortgages for straw homes and buildings.

However, if poorly installed straw bales are particularly vulnerable to rot and rodents, which is why exterior cracks must be repaired promptly.

Mr Bullen said there had been a great deal of interest in his venture in recent weeks.

“There’s been a really amazing response on Facebook with lots of private messages. No one has sort of said for sure that they want one right now, but lots of people are saying ‘tell me more’.”

A crowdfunding campaign “to get things rolling” is next on his schedule, but stressed that the homes would not be cheap, despite his intended aim to make them affordable.

Regarding building regulations, South Hams District Council said it had “no formal view on straw bale homes” in terms of planning or housing.

Devon Building Control, which works with the industry to ensure that buildings are designed to comply with regulations, has an 80-page technical guide providing information and advice on straw construction in the UK.

According to Crown Pavilions, a firm specializing in building bespoke garden rooms, the structures

do not necessarily need planning permission as long as they are not higher than 2.5 metres from floor to roof when built within two metres of a boundary, or take up more than 50 per cent of the garden area.

However, if the intention is to sleep in one, a garden room is no longer classed as an ancillary building but a “self-contained unit of accommodation”, which means it would require planning permission.