Stockwood Discovery Centre
Andrew Butler
A world of discovery awaits visitors to this new bee centre in Luton
IT IS an unlikely fact that in the
early 1930s, Luton was the centre of
beekeeping. It was a thriving town
with hat manufacture as its main
industry dating back to the late
seventeenth century. The arrival of
the railway and cheap electricity
encouraged new engineering firms
to move from London, including
Vauxhall Motors.
BACKGROUND
The renowned beekeeper and author,
William Herrod-Hempsall moved to re
ltLuton in 1903 and opened a School of u
B
wBeekeeping in 1933. On the steep er
dn
Ahillside adjacent to Stockingstone
Road were 300 hives. Students came Charlie Dimmock expressed great interest in beekeeping. She would like to
from many parts of world to learn the attend beginners' classes first
craft. Just down the road from the
school was Wardown Park with a lake, working skeps in the public walled
bowling green and bandstand. There gardens looked after by Ian Beaty. The
was also a house which had become new Bee Gallery was set up within the
a museum in 1931. This was where rural trades section, dedicated to the
Herrod-Hempsall set up a revolving memory of Herrod-Hempsall and
three-comb observation hive, which centred around his books and
was maintained by members of the equipment. These had been donated
Bedfordshire Beekeepers’ Association by Leslie Gingell, one of his local
in the years following his death. pupils at the Beekeeping School.
In 1994 the observation hive was NEW BEGINNINGS
moved to Stockwood Park Craft
Museum on the south side of the Stockwood Park recently secured
town. Here there were already two funding of £5.5 million from the
One of the older design of hives in
the exhibition
Visitors can wander round the
exhibition wearing veils
Bee Craft digital January 2009 Page 33
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