It's an odd leap from making chicken coops to making houses, but that’s how the Colt Company has evolved over the 88 years of its existence. What started out as a cottage industry in a Kent village turned into a kit-house empire that stretches as far as the Falkland Islands. There are now 15,000 of them in Britain alone, and the Queen and the Prince of Wales are fans, as their Colt Houses at Sandringham and Balmoral testify.

“In fairness, they were very good chicken coops,” says Terry Tierney, the company’s genial managing director. “They had big flaps at the side so that air could circulate, but they were warm as well, so the chickens were happy and laid noticeably more eggs.”

The business was started shortly after the First World War by a German called William Gleischner, who realised that he would attract more customers if he used his wife’s maiden name of Colt. Gleischner had been interned in Wales during the war and put his time to good use learning carpentry. After his chicken-coop business took off, he travelled to America, where he saw timber-frame houses being built with cedar wood cladding and cedar-tiled roofs — and so Colt Houses was born.

As their popularity increased, one was even designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Tierney says: “The great thing about cedar is that it doesn’t need painting. There are natural oils in the wood so you don’t need preservatives. All you have to do is oil the outside of the house every three to five years.”

Colt Houses really peaked in the Sixties and Seventies, especially among former military personnel. “It was something to do with upper-class dinner parties,” says Tierney. “Colonels would invite guests into their Colt House and they would say, ‘Gosh, this is jolly nice’, and then they all wanted one. We’ve put them up for lots of colonels and rear-admirals.”

Tierney, who spent years erecting hundreds of Colt Houses across the country as a sub-contractor, bought the company in 1996, when those running it decided to retire.

So how exactly are they put together? Imagine a top-of-the-range doll’s house kit on a much larger scale and you’ve got a Colt House. You need a piece of land, of course, then the foundations go in, drains are put down and the building is delivered in a flat pack. The panels that make up the house are 8ft by 4ft, so they can be handled easily. The roof trusses are put in place, the cedar roof is installed, windows and doors are added (in aluminium or wood), then the electrics and plumbing. The whole caboodle is painted inside and, hey presto – you can move in and invite some colonels round.

So could Fred Bloggs put one together on his own? In theory yes, says Tierney, but he would need basic carpentry skills, and he would be better off if he had two or three handy mates helping. A four-bedroom Colt House can go up in four months, and smaller versions, for a holiday let, a granny annexe or a student bolt hole, take less time.

There are 65 basic designs to choose from, and each one is different. They are also surprisingly cheap – from £12,500 for a small weekend cottage up to £52,100 for the Alsace, a three-bedroom Dutch-gabled family home. There’s even a flat-pack church for £93,000. Remember, you will also need the land and, for anything more than 30 sq m, you must have building regulations approval.

A good portion of Tierney’s work these days is taken up with modifying Colt Houses that were built years ago, adding sun rooms, guest extensions and, in some cases, an extra storey, because people prefer to refurbish rather than knock the house down and start afresh.

Angela Le Breton and her husband, David, have lived in their Colt House in Wickhambreaux, Kent, since 1999, and they admit that it was “a bit of a bargain”. The house had been built in the 1930s, but had been lived in for many years by an elderly lady who could not afford to keep the place in trim. Angela says: “It was very shabby and all our friends told us to knock it down and build a new one but we liked it the way it was, so we stripped it back to the timber frame and just redid the cedar cladding. We liked the fact that most rooms were double aspect and that it was light, bright and spacious. The layout reminded me of a big and well-made doll’s house and, like a lot of Colt Houses, it was in a lovely setting. That’s what really sold it to us. And it’s nice to think the Queen’s got one as well — we are clearly in good company.”

Tierney’s wife, Lynne, who is company secretary, produces a large box file of Colt customers and reads aloud from the cards. “France, Zurich, the Faroe Islands . . . Tristan da Cunha. We sold 18 in the Falklands, just sent them on a ship and the customers put them up themselves. Ooh look, here’s one we sent to The Gambia.”

Terry laughs at the memory. “Yes, there were a few problems with the one we did in the Gambia. The site was unattended overnight and a few bits of the house went missing. I think people were nicking them to use on bonfires.”

Colt Houses: 01233 740074, www.colthouses.co.uk

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