Bee Shelter and St. Mary’s Church, Hartpury

I love riding my motorbike through the countryside. Especially when the roads take you to hidden gems like these.

I’ve passed the sign for the Bee Shelter countless of times but never actually looked into it. I assumed it was a conservation area or something like that, but it’s actually a historic site of listed buildings, dating all the way back to the 1400s.

To get to the Bee Shelter you have to walk through the St Mary’s Church yard. Here you’ll find many old graves, some even dating back to the 15th century. The church yard also contains the chest tomb of Thomas Sloper, who died in 1703. What makes this tomb particularly interesting, is that the top of the chest is an engraving of his late wife, who passed in 1676. It’s amazing that after all this time the engraving is still in pretty good condition and has lasted through our harsh british weather.

Originally located in Nailsworth, the shelter was rescued from demolition and gifted to the Hartpury college in the 1960s. There it was reconstructed and moved to the grounds of St Mary’s Church where it resides today.

The cubby holes are called boles and the baskets are called skeps. There are 28 all together, which would of been space for 860,000 bees!

The UK is full of history and I feel very lucky to be able to ride twenty minutes and see something amazing. As much as I love to travel, it’s great exploring my own country as well… Whilst the weather is good any way!