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Bee Boles
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To this day if you look carefully around some of the old Dartmoor
farms you will see what look like small cupboards made of granite.
They are either built into or alongside a wall and will consist of
anything from one to eight small recesses or niches, each with a
granite lintel. These are in fact
bee boles and it was in or on
(depending on the type) them that the farmers would keep the straw
bee hives or skeps. There were two sorts of boles, those located
outside for spring/summer use and those inside which were used in
wintertime. The outside ones were ideally located in a south facing
wall which would ensure plenty of morning sunlight, however there
seems to be a great diversity of facing directions on Dartmoor. The inside niche boles
would be fashioned into the internal walls of barns or outbuildings
for use in the winter. Obviously these would protect the bee
colonies from the worst of the cold weather, thus ensuring their
survival until the following spring. Near Okehampton is a farm that
has a barn with a stepped gable that houses three boles for winter
use and this is estimated to date from 1750. There was no standard
size for a bee bole but many were around about
18” x 18" x 15" deep, although there is considerable variation from
farm to farm. Some
of the skeps would stand on a flat stone slab that had a projecting
lip, this provided a landing place for the bees.
What is reported to be the earliest example of a bee bole can be seen at Buckfast Abbey and is thought to date from Medieval times. The table below lists the known bee boles on Dartmoor, their Ordnance Survey grid coordinates, how many boles are present, the date they were built, and which direction they face:
There is a online national register of bee boles that is maintained by the International Bee Research Institute should anybody wish any further information.
Reading List.
Brain, P. & R. 1986 Disappearing Devon, Roundabout Devon Books, Instow. Woods, S. H. 1988 Dartmoor Stone, Devon Books, Exeter.
22/11/2007 |
