Further Bee Boles in Kent

FURTHER BEE BOLES IN KENT By V. F. DESBOROUGH THE request to members, which appeared in the Paper on Bee Boles and Beehouses in Arch. Cant., LXIX, 90,1955, to report further bee bole sites should they hear or know of any, has brought information on ten new sites. These have now been visited and photographed and will be included, together with those mentioned in the above Paper, in the Registers of the National Beekeeping Museum, thus making, up to the present time, nineteen sites for the county of Kent. Nearly all of our new sites are in old garden walls of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and are to be found in various parts of the county. They are more widely dispersed than those mentioned in Arch. Cant., loe cit. The following short details give an idea of their whereabouts, measurements and dates: I am indebted to our members, Mr. and Mrs. BeU of Eltham, for reporting two sets of bee boles at Eltham: 1. In the red brick garden waU of a house caUed The Gatehouse (now occupied by the Army Educational Corps), which stands near the site of the original gatehouse of Eltham Palace, are a fine row of bee boles in two sets, one of 11, and one of 7—18 in all. The wall is presumably of Tudor date. The recesses have a pointed gable formed of two bricks 7£ in. long, and measure 12 in. by 10 in. by 10 in. The shallow depth is evidence of early date. The state of repah is good. Mr. Bell thinks they may have constituted the apiary of Eltham Palace. 2. Well Hall, Eltham, the former home of WUliam Roper (who married Margaret, the daughter of Sh Thomas More) no longer exists, but the 400-year-old gardens are now a pubhc park maintained by the Woolwich CouncU, and go by the name of WeU HaU Pleasaunce, and it is in one of the original old red brick Tudor walls here that there are 14 bee boles. The recesses are hregularly spaced at intervals of 4 ft. to 6 ft., again with pointed gables of two bricks. It is difficult to know the exact depth, as most of the recesses have been bricked up, but they were presumably from 9 in. to 10 in. Mr. Jell of Burton Farm House, Kennington, Ashford, sent detaUs and photographs of two bee boles in the brick walls of his waUed garden. 237 FURTHER BEE BOLES IN KENT The house dates from Tudor times, and is one of the oldest in the district. The bee boles here have a rounded roof arch, are shaUow in depth, and are in medium repah. There is one bee bole in the garden of Austens, Sevenoaks, the home of one of our members, Miss Joan Constant. The wall in which it is buUt is of old ragstone, the shape is almost rectangular, top shghtly curved, and measures 20 in. by 17 in. by 11 in.—is 3 ft. above the ground. The state of repah is good. The date of the house with which the waU is thought to be connected is c. 1769, but in my opinion the garden is older. Another of our members, Mrs. Lewis of Dunks Green, reported many bee boles in a waU of the garden of Tree House, Plaxtol, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Eastwood. The house dates back to the fifteenth century, whether the garden waU in which the bee boles are situated is as old, is difficult to say. The recesses are probably of later date. This is a particularly interesting site for Kent, as it is our first to be recorded with two tiers of recesses, and also the first where we have had evidence that the bee boles were in definite use in 1913, and probably up to twenty years ago. The latter fact is confirmed by an Ulustration of the bee boles which appeared in an article on Tree House in a magazine called The Country House, 1913. In this picture there is a straw skep in one of the recesses. The present owners, who bought the house twenty years ago, say that there were remains of straw then in many of the recesses. The bee boles are all in a waU which divides the entrance to the house from the garden. There must have been about six recesses in the upper tier, and about seven in the lower one. But an archway has been cut through the wall, thus destroying some of the boles. In the plate one can see the six and a half boles on the right of the archway. They are in splendid condition, rounded roof arch and measuring 18 in. by 17 in. by 19 in. and facing south-east. At East Peckham, Mr. Luck, senior, has reported several bee boles in the walls of his garden at Peckham Place. The recesses are spaced at various intervals round three sides of the garden, but only one was in a sufficiently good state of repah to be photographed. AU the others had either been bricked up or destroyed when the waUs were repahed. The present house dates from the late eighteenth century, but it is very probable that formerly there was an older buUding there, and that the walls belonged to that date, as .the recesses are shallow in depth. They have the pointed arch. Mr. P. J. Tester has sent in detaUs and two excellent photographs of a bee bole in a cottage garden wall at Farningham. It appears to have been obscured up until recently by a shed, which has now been removed. The measurements of the bee bole are 37 in. by 26 in. by 13 in. The exceptional height seems to point to the recess having housed two skeps, 238 PLATE I Austens, Sevenoaks. ' face p. 23} PLATE II •*"L' * ' w- * *"•'.. «^*fw5 (a) Pett Place, Charing. ; > « (6) Tree House, Plaxtol. PLATE III (a) " Problem " Recesses, Richmond House, Charing. (6) Higham Hall, Rochester. PLATK IV Farningham. FURTHER BEE BOLES IN KENT and there are actually wooden supports for a shelf mid-way, but Mr. Tester says they are modern and not connected with the original use as bee boles. But there may have been older supports which have been destroyed. To quote Mr. Tester: " The probable age, judged by brickwork, is the eighteenth century. I base my estimate of the age (1700) on the fact that bricks 2\ in. thick are uncommon before that date. Jambs and arch of red-brown bricks each 9 in. by 4 in. by 2£ in. The waU is composed of flint rubble." The set of eight recesses at Pett Place, Charing, are undoubtedly bee boles, and are situated in one of the waUs of the waUed garden. This wall runs from north to south—the bee boles face east—and is made of smaU red bricks 7 in. by 1\ in. and is in good repair. The approximate date should be from the seventeenth century. The measurements of the recesses are 10 to 18 in. by 10 in. by 10 in., they have a pointed gabled roof, and are about Z\ ft. above the ground. There are few remains of the original old manor house (thirteenth century). Mrs. Hoskings, the owner, with her husband, of Pett Place, tells me that the present house is Jacobean, built in red brick, in the Tudor style. The north face, however, shows genuine Tudor work, and as the wall with the recesses is at that side of the house, it may be that the bee boles are of the same date, as they are smaU, but according to Mr. Tester, bricks 2 | in. thick were uncommon before 1700. The other site at Richmond House, Charing, with its five recesses, is one of what we cah our " problem recesses." Many such have been reported, including those in the War Memorial Garden at Canterbury Cathedral. They resemble bee boles in almost every respect, but theh shaUow depth of 4 in. to 5 in. make it impossible that they should have been used for sheltering skeps. Much research has taken place as to these recesses. Dr. Eva Crane and Mrs. Duruz hold the opinion that they may have been built for ornamental purposes, but they also consider them a problem, and any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated. I am showing a photograph of these " problem recesses " to help in this purpose. Bee boles in the outside waU of a chimney dated 1580 at Dane Court, Chilham, have been reported by the owner, but, unfortunately, we have no detaUs avahable. Members wUl remember that in my first Paper on Bee Boles in Arch. Cant., 1955, detaUs were given of bee boles in a disused chimney stack at Wrotham Water. Mr. and Mrs. Inskip of Higham Hall, Rochester, have six recesses on theh property. Two of these six are of the average measurements: 12 in. to 17 in. by 28 in. by 9 in., face east, have rounded roof arches, and are situated in part of the original sixteenth-century wall of the house. They are undoubtedly bee boles. The remaining four recesses are very large and are of various 239 FURTHER BEE BOLES IN KENT measurements. It is probable that they, also, are bee boles, but if so, they must have housed two skeps. Two of them have a depth of 9 in., but the remaining two only 4 in. depth. But in this latter case there are signs of obvious fining. The aspect of two of these four recesses is north (an aspect seldom found for bee boles) and the last two face east and west. The waUs are of redbrick. Mr. Anthony Dale, Investigator for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, assesses the walls as older than the house, and puts the date at sixteenth to seventeenth century. I am greatly indebted to all the owners of these ten sites for theh many acts of kindness and help. Also to Dr. Eva Crane, Mrs. Duruz, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Bell, Mrs. Lewis, Miss J . Constant, Miss M. Ruglys, Mr. Anthony Dale, Mr. P. J. Tester, Mr. Dines, Mr. Colin Walker and Mr. Edgar Phillips (the Kentish Express) for theh unremitting help. And I offer my sincere thanks to Miss Jocelyn Parker, Mr. Philip Ruglys, Mr. Dines, Mr. P. J. Tester and Mr. V. R. Desborough for the exceUent photographs pubhshed in this paper. LATE FOOTNOTE Since my paper went to press, I have heard of an almost certain bee bole site in the garden behind the National Provincial Bank, Maidstone. Mr. Mendel, the Manager of the Bank, and our Hon. Treasurer, has given me the foUowing information: " I n an old brick waU, believed to be of Tudor date, in the garden behind the Bank, are five recesses. The approximate dimensions are height 16J inches, breadth 14 inches, depth 14 inches. Four of the recesses are 5 ft. 3 in. from the ground, the remaining one being 6 ft. 6 in. The recesses have a rounded roof, and the waU faces east." In every respect, this information confirms that they are bee boles. 240