Where heritage craft meets modern art as a launchpad for new conversations around the importance of creating habitats for bees, pollinators and all wildlife. What is a skep? A skep is a basket. A bee skep is a basket for bees – so a traditional form of beehive. They are typically made from wicker or …
Author archives: emmalpritchard
The Bee Friendly Skep Project launches!
We are super excited to reveal a new bee-friendly collaboration that we’ve been working on. The Bee Friendly Skep Project is a celebration of bees, British art and craftsmanship, and team spirit. Its purpose: To highlight the need to create new habitats where bees and other pollinators can thrive. We invited five female artists (Sarah …
And the winners are…
It’s time to celebrate all of the community activity that has been having a positive impact on bee populations around the globe. And to announce this year’s winners of the Bee Friendly Awards! We set up the Bee Friendly Awards to shine a light on all of the groups around the country that are championing …
Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex
A communal artwork created by the people of Walton-on-the-Naze and installed as part of a planter project at the station. Poems and pyrographics were made by Tendring Writers Group, run by Faye Raithe, Shorefields School, Clacton Coastal Academy, and The Colchester Refugee, Asylum Seekers and Migrants Network (RAMA), through workshops hosted by Eleanor Brown at …
New art commission celebrates pollinators in stained glass
Earlier this year, we commissioned Niamh Walshe McBride to create a series of stained glass panels for the waiting area at Leyton Underground Station in London. Each panel features a different pollinator, including a bee, butterfly and ladybird. The panels, installed this month, sit alongside the lavender beds and wildlife garden that we have also …
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Leyton Underground Station, London
In 2024, we commissioned artist Niamh Walshe McBride to create these pollinator stained glass window panes for the waiting area at Leyton Underground Station, where we also have a bee-friendly wildlife garden.
Enso – Colchester Student Accommodation, Essex
A new student accommodation building in Hythe, near Colchester has been given a homes for nature make-over with bird boxes, bee house, giant bug hotel mushrooms, and a seeding of wildflowers.
Witham Housing Development, Essex
On the outskirts of a new housing development in Witham, a town in Essex, we have created a bee haven – a housing development for bees and other pollinators. There are bee houses, bird boxes, and plants and seeding to ensure year-round forage, from spring Broom and summer Sunflowers to autumn Skimmia and winter Ivy.
Reading Green Park Railway Station, Berkshire
We installed two self-watering planters on the concourse outside Reading Green Park Railway Station, in March 2024. These planters add to the bee-friendly planting already present throughout this new development and station, and add to GWR’s ever-expanding network of platform-based pollinator habitats.
Weymouth Railway Station, Dorset
In 2024, the volunteers at Weymouth Railway Station in Dorset became the proud owners of four of our new bee-friendly bug hotels. Thanks to support from the South Wessex Community Rail Partnership, these bug hotels will help pollinators, including solitary bees and ladybirds, thrive at the station. They also add to the wildlife-focused planting already …
