You’ve got a van full of awkward, heavy things and no patience left for a trolley queue. Maybe it’s a wardrobe that won’t fit through a corridor, or a load of dirty tools from the workshop, or a season’s worth of machinery that just needs to go somewhere dry until spring. Here’s the bit that matters: you can reverse straight up to the door and load it in yourself, at your own pace, with nobody deciding you need a hand.
In short: Moving heavy or bulky furniture? Drive up, load direct, no lift involved. Storing tools, stock or dirty equipment? No corridor to navigate. Just want to know if container storage is real here? Yes, confirmed: it’s only available at some Wigwam sites, and this is one of them, see below.
Is container storage actually available in Shipston-on-Stour?
Yes, and it’s worth saying plainly because container storage is only available at some of our sites. It’s genuinely offered at our Shipston-on-Stour site, alongside Chipping Norton and Warminster. It’s not a generic line lifted from a template. If you’ve searched for it because you weren’t sure, this is your answer: the containers are here, at this yard, and they work exactly as described below.
What does drive-up actually feel like, step by step?
It’s simple enough to describe in one breath: you reverse the van to the container door and load straight in. No trolley, no lift, no corridor, no member of staff walking past while you wrestle something heavy round a corner.
The back-the-van-up moment
This is the moment the whole thing turns on. You arrive at the compound, the gate is the only checkpoint, and from there you drive to your own container and back up to the door. The van is at the door. Whatever you’re moving goes from the boot or the back straight onto the container floor, in one motion, however many trips it takes. Nobody is timing you. Nobody is watching to see if you’re managing. You load at whatever pace the job needs, which for a wardrobe from a period cottage or a trailer of farm kit might be a very different pace to the last thing you moved. That’s the whole point of doing it yourself: nobody else gets a say in how long it takes.
What’s different from wheeling a trolley through a building
An indoor unit usually means parking in a shared car park, then moving through a corridor or a lift before you even reach your own storage door. Every one of those steps is a chance to be slowed down or to feel like you’re in someone’s way. A container skips that chain entirely, and the next section lays it out step by step.
What size is the container, and what will it actually hold?
Each container gives you 160 sq ft of space, roughly enough to hold the contents of a three-bedroom home, or a 7.5-tonne lorry load. That’s the working number to plan against, whether you’re clearing a whole house or just need somewhere for the overflow; for what a house’s contents need, see our 3-bed house move size guide.
What fits in 160 sq ft
A house-mover or downsizer gets furniture from every room of a typical cottage in there, including the oversized pieces that never fit through a modern doorway easily. A small trade or farm-adjacent business gets tools, stock, or a season’s equipment that’s too dirty or awkward for an indoor corridor. And if you’re a seasonal household, it’s garden machinery, outdoor furniture, or bulk goods that only need to come out a few times a year. None of these needs the container to look the same inside, and that’s the point: it’s one flexible space, not a fixed layout built around somebody else’s idea of what you’re storing. For the full spec and how the format works across Wigwam’s other container sites, see our container storage page.
Container vs an indoor storage unit: what’s structurally different?
Put in steps and handling rather than opinion: a container removes the park, trolley, corridor and lift chain entirely, because the vehicle is the storage door. An indoor unit doesn’t, because the building is built around shared access.
| Step | Drive-up container (Shipston) | Typical indoor unit |
|---|---|---|
| Park | Reverse straight up to the container door | Park in a general car park, walk in |
| Move goods to storage door | Zero, the vehicle is at the door | Trolley or multiple carries through a corridor/lift |
| Awkward or heavy items | Lifted directly from van to container floor, one motion | Manoeuvred around corners, doorways, lift thresholds |
| Repeat trips | Reverse up again, same zero-distance carry each time | Repeat the corridor/lift walk each time |
| Who is present | Nobody but you, or anyone from your own business you’ve brought | Possible passing staff or other customers in shared corridors |
We won’t pretend this is a timed lab test, and we’re not going to invent a minutes-saved figure nobody measured. The real claim is fewer handling steps between the van and the container, not a stopwatch result. For anything heavy, bulky or awkward, fewer steps is the whole game, and fewer steps also means fewer moments where someone else is watching you manage.
If that’s the difference that matters to you, see container availability at Shipston.
Which villages is the Shipston container yard realistically convenient for?
Shipston-on-Stour sits at the centre of a stretch of South Warwickshire that’s more villages than towns, and the container yard is a short drive from most of them. If you are still comparing what is available locally, our guide to storing belongings in Shipston-on-Stour sets the options side by side.
The South Warwickshire villages
Tredington, Honington, Armscote and Darlingscott are all within easy reach, along with the wider Stratford-upon-Avon catchment beyond. We’re naming these as places genuine local interest comes from, based on how people search for us, not as an official list of everywhere we’re promising to serve. If you’re in one of the surrounding villages and wondering whether it’s worth the drive, most of our container customers already are. Distances and drive times from Ilmington, Halford, Whichford and the other villages are in our guide for the villages around Shipston.
Is a container secure and weather-resistant if it’s not indoors?
It is. Containers are steel-built, lockable, and sit inside an access-controlled compound with CCTV, built to withstand harsh weather. We describe it as clean, dry and secure, and that’s a literal description: a solid steel box that keeps damp and knocks out, without a heater or a thermostat inside. If your goods need protection from the weather rather than a controlled temperature, this covers it properly.
Access hours, smart entry, and who needs to be there
You can get to your container between 6am and 10pm, seven days a week. It’s a wide enough window to fit around a working day, an early start, or a late finish. You get in and out using smart entry rather than a key held by a member of staff, and nobody can let a third party in on your behalf. That means if a courier or a third party ever needs to get to your container, someone from your own business needs to be there to let them in and meet them. Nobody from Wigwam will be waiting at the gate on your behalf.
What Wigwam support can and can’t help with
Our support team is genuinely useful for sizing, availability, access, invoicing and booking. What they won’t do is discuss your business plans, or give you legal, insurance, or regulatory advice, including anything MOD-related. If a question sits in that territory, take it to your own solicitor or insurer rather than to a storage support line. That’s not us being unhelpful, it’s us being clear about where our expertise ends.
What can (and can’t) go in a Wigwam container?
Household and business goods, yes, in whatever mix your move or your work needs. Vehicles, no. A Wigwam container isn’t a garage: no cars, no motorcycles, no caravans. Car and motorbike storage is a separate service at Chipping Norton, on our vehicle storage page; caravans aren’t stored.
What not to store in any shipping container
Beyond vehicles, the general rule for any shipping container, ours included, is no flammables, no perishables, and nothing illegal to hold in the first place. Basic good sense for any enclosed steel space, and worth keeping in mind whatever you’re loading.
If you’ve read this far, you already know whether a container at Shipston fits what you need to move. You’ll be the one who decides how the loading goes, at your own pace, and that’s a small but real satisfaction on a day when not much else feels within your control. Check container space at Shipston.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Container storage is only available at some Wigwam sites, Shipston among them alongside Chipping Norton and Warminster, and it’s here at Shipston, not a generic claim.
Household and business goods of most kinds. Vehicles, motorcycles and caravans are not stored in our containers.
Yes, but we can’t let a third party in on your behalf, so if a courier or third party needs access, someone from your own business needs to be physically there to let them in.
A container gives you drive-up access straight to the door, with no trolley, lift or corridor in between. A standard unit typically involves parking, then moving goods through a shared building to reach it.
6am to 10pm, seven days a week.
As with any shipping container, avoid flammable items, perishables and anything illegal to store. This is general safety guidance, not a full regulated list.
