Bee Shelter

The sign 'Bee Shelter' was one of those which I'd driven past, was intrigued by but never explored.

I don't know quite what I was expecting but it did surprise me.

Built in the mid nineteenth century by Paul Tuffley a beekeeping stone mason and quarry master for his garden in Nailsworth, it now lives in Hartpury having been saved from destruction by developers. 

Beautifully constructed from local limestone it houses under a small tiled roof adorned with finials and ridge-crests, small niches, see Extra,  on which the bee skeps were kept. The skeps used to be made of wicker up until about 1880 and straw was also used up until the1930's when the invention of wooden hives took over with the consequence that the need for bee shelters declined.