Brick & stone Antique beehives in the Walled garden of Heligan, near Mevagissey, St Austell, Cornwall, UK

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Bee boles are found across the whole of the British Isles. Other names were bee holes, bee shells (Cumbria), bee keps (Cumbria), bee niches (Derbyshire), bee walls (Gloucestershire), bee houses (Yorkshire), bee boxes (Kent) and bee garths.[1] They were often built close to the dwelling house so that swarms could be detected and captured quickly; in addition it helped to familiarise the bees with human presence and activity. Honey was often stolen, so keeping the bees close to the house helped to deter this, together with the use of a padlocked metal bar that served to both prevent the removal of a skep from a bee bole and to hold a wooden board across the front when the bees were overwintering. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the heyday of bee bole construction, especially on large country house estates. The shapes of old bee boles can sometimes be seen in walls where they have been filled in with brick or stone, with only the outline remaining.

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Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: Pentewan, St Austell, Cornwall
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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