Bee conservation being promoted at Worcestershire railway station

Great Western Railway is hosting a display of eight bee-friendly skeps at Worcestershire Parkway Station to promote bee conservation along Britain’s railway networks.

Bee skeps are a traditional form of beehive, usually made from wicker or straw, and then woven and tightly coiled into a bell-shaped or flat-topped structure.

Artists and local schoolchildren designed the ones at Worcestershire Parkway to bring a warm spring welcome to visitors to the station.

The display of skeps. // Credit: Great Western Railway

The Community Rail Development Fund donated £1,000 to Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (CRP) towards the project to enable educational workshops for pupils from Norton Juxta Kempsey C of E Primary School and the aptly named Honeybourne Primary School.

The Bee Friendly Trust held three workshops, two in classrooms where the children decorated the skeps, and one at Worcestershire Parkway station.

Platform, an education scheme working with schools to empower young people in learning about accessing railways, brought the children by train to the station workshop and delivered important rail safety education.

Children at one of the skep workshops. // Credit: Great Western Railway

During the station workshop, the children learned about bee conservation, did some gardening, and unveiled the display of skeps.

The design for the skeps came from both the children and professional artists, one of whom, Sarah Hoyle, had in 2021 painted a bee-themed mural at Oxford station, again in partnership with the Bee Friendly Trust.

Other artists involved with the displays were Maddie Moate, a presenter, podcaster, author, and beekeeper; Bristol-based mural artist Alice Baker; Lucy Caddel from Shrewsbury; Brighton-based artist Hattie Gordon; and Esther Rushton, designer of the Bee Friendly Trust’s packets of wildflower seeds.

The skeps will be on display at Worcestershire Parkway station until June 2025.

One of the decorated skeps. // Credit: Great Western Railway

Worcestershire Parkway railway station is on the Birmingham to Bristol and Oxford to Worcester main lines. It opened in March 2020, and in March this year, just five years after it opened, it was declared carbon neutral.

The Bee Friendly Trust also works with other train operators, including Govia Thameslink Railway (which installed one hundred ‘Homes for Nature’ at railway stations across its network.

“This exhibition showcases GWR’s commitment to creating spaces both for wildlife to thrive and children to be educated with the Easter holidays presenting the perfect opportunity for people of all ages to come along and enjoy it. Being able to support local schools and the wider community in partnership with Worcestershire CRP, Platform, and the Bee Friendly Trust has been an absolute joy, culminating in this beautiful display which is accessible to all who visit Worcestershire Parkway station and live in the community.”Emma Morris, GWR Senior Community Impact Manager

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