Beekeeping in Barnet
Beekeeping is an ancient craft that has been practiced for many thousands of years. In this country it was an important industry providing a source of food and light, using the crudest of techniques. It was not until the development of an affluent middle class in the mid 1800’s and the invention of the frame hive 1852 that modern beekeeping was born. We do know that The British Beekeepers Association was founded in 1874 and the Herts. Beekeepers association in 1878 this demonstrates that the 1870’s was a time when beekeeping associations were springing up all over the place
I must say at this point that the information I have recovered may not be entirely correct however I feel its only right to let you know what we have discovered so far and then amend where necessary.Let us start off by looking at the earliest possible date where bees were officially kept in Barnet, for the Production of honey for Public Consumption
The manor of Whetstone or Frien Barnet was held in 1336 by the knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
It was probably among the lands between Barnet and London taken from the abbey of St. Albans by William I, who most probably had given it to the bishop of London. Lands in Barnet were held in fee of the bishop in 1196, when John Picot released those to which he had a hereditary claim. John or his ancestor was the Picot Lombard whose lands had been granted by 1199 to the Hospitallers by Bishops Gilbert Foliot and Richard Fitzneal and the chapter of St. Paul's.
The knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem would almost certainly have kept many bee colonies for Medicinal purposes, skills that they most certainly acquired in Jerusalem and therefore we can confidently assume that they also produced Honey, Indeed is was a beekeeping Association In Barnet circa 1200 AD therefore we can say that Barnet has had Beekeeping Associations for 807 years.
It is my belief that the association we have to day can be traced right back to these early days, We do have evidence of the interest in beekeeping for least two generations of the Byng Family, In fact the reverend Bing was a president of the association. In the mid 1800
At the moment we don’t know when Barnet & District Beekeepers’ Association was formed. We do have a copy of a programme for 1911, on the back of that programme it lists a President and 9 Vice Presidents. It is not unreasonable to presume that the Association must have been in existence for quite some time to have amassed so many vice presidents. That being the case it is reasonable guess that we were founded at some time about 1880.
Again not much is known about the years between 1911 and the late 20’s but the Association must have been reasonably vigorous, because in the late 20’s a group of members who worked at Elstree film studios made 60 min silent film ‘The year of the Bee’ (We still have the original film in our possession). The film was a great success and sold some 2500 copies world wide. During the 1970’s it was transferred to VHS format and recently has been digitised onto CD.
Three silver cups were olso presented to the Association in during the 30’s The Tidmarsh Cup in 1932, TheDavis Cup in 1933 and The Ellis Cup 1938 to be awarded at the Annual Honey Show, this suggests that during this period the Association it must have been quite a vibrant.
The Second World War caused the Association to mushroom in size to some 400 members, which was mainly due to the fact that beekeepers got a larger sugar ration to feed there bees and it was this larger sugar ration that fuelled this sudden love for the creatures. Ultimately the government started colouring the sugar green to put an end to the black market racketeering,
With the coming of peace these numbers declined rapidly but the Association remained active as is evident by the presentation of six more cups and trophies over the next forty years.
The Helen Wright Mead Mazer - 1957;
The Tollington Shield - 1966;
The Geoff Matthews Cup - 1982;
The Ralph West Dry Mead - 1990
The Joe & Edna Price Trophy - 1994
During the 1990’s the Association strength began to dwindle, it also became a Division of the Hertfordshire Beekeepers' Association. This move was made primarily to enable members to gain access to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) insurance scheme. In 2000 the Millennium Commission gave the Association a grant of £2275 for the purchase of beekeeping equipment and protective clothing.
The Association reached an All time low in 2003 when The dwindling numbers led the Committee to consider dissolving it. However at the November 2003 AGM the Association members unanimously rejected this proposition. a year later in November 2004 a new committee took over the management of the Association and immediately adopted a policy of recruiting and training new beekeepers And providing members with an apiary to keep their bees.
The new curriculum trained beekeepers to the point where they can take and successfully pass the British Beekeepers Association Basic Assessment Examination.
This policy had rejuvenated the Association to the point where at the 2005 AGM there was standing room only.
In May 2006 the London Borough of Barnet gave the Association a £1500 grant to set up a new apiary in the Byng Road Environmental Centre to cope with growing number of new members.
At 10:30 on the 12th October 2006 the foundations were laid for a new Science facility and Honey Processing centre. this work was completed exactly one Year to the day and the facility now offers its members Honey extraction facilities and full scientific support for beekeeping in general.
Today the Association is a very different animal to that of former years; we have a new set of rules which clearly states what we are trying to do. Which may be summarised as ‘The pursuit of excellence’ We have three association aperies where members can keep their bees, a website which led to the development of our own coat of arms and now a honey extraction Facility and a Science Laboratory.
We have an annual member’s lunch which is on the same day as the annual honey show.