'A shed load'

[paddy]

It always amazes me how many people don't read the first post in a thread before wading into it.

(Not aimed at anyone in particular, just a general comment)

[mockingbird_franklin]

A shed doesn't have to mean a garden shed, it could refer to any size of storage facility. The idea of a shedload is that it is a large (yet indeterminate) amount that would have the imaginary facility fit to burst. The size of the shed, therefore, varies to fit the large amount of whatever it is that is in question.

This one for me, storage facilities for freight etc are called sheds, or at least that used to be the common term.

[Juju]

A shed load isn't quantifiably large or small so in the "shed load of beer" context it can't possibly come from the lorry derivation, it comes from the garden shed derivation

[TheDon]

wow, that really is a shed load of beer!

[thetrees]

I think that Paddy asked for the origin of the description.

The origin certainly was a description of a load that had parted early from a truck, generally causing an obstruction.

In modern day parlance it has been adopted to describe a large amount of something.

It is an example of words or phrases that are used without an understanding of what they mean, with subsequent common (mis)use resulting in them meaning something different.

[LondonLax]

I've always assumed that the expression comes from a load which has been shed. The shed in the garden isn't involved in the common phrase in so far as I'm aware, it just happen to sound the same.

Precisely. The origin is from traffic reports and is taken to mean "enough stuff to close a motorway".

Yes I think this would be correct.

The phrase comes from the transportation term but when most people hear the word shed they think of a garden shed so that probably became the more popular meaning of the phrase.