The Earliest Record of Beekeeping in Northern England

This is a story of a journey that includes joy, disappointment, experimentation, discovery, destruction, devastation, and satisfaction, played out to a backdrop of religious differences and intolerances, political upheaval, plague, pestilence, civil war and regicide: but mostly it is about 17th century beekeeping. In this volume, for the very first time the author details the methods used by one English beekeeper as recorded in his manuscript of 1644 – 1658. The bee-hive he devised and management techniques he employed are described, analysed and compared with those previously considered to have been at the forefront of the craft at that time. Also, the author is able to confidently reveal the identity of the hitherto unknown Northumberland beekeeper.