Bee Boles, Plaxtol, Kent
The holes built into this garden wall are called bee boles. They were designed to house round wicker bee hives known as skeps. The wicker skeps were used in Britain from the 1100s up to the 1800s, when they were mostly replaced by the wooden bee hives still used today. The skeps were often just placed on a bench or a ledge, but where weather conditions were not ideal special shelters were built for them. This garden wall is just one example of those shelters. It probably dates back to the 1400s.
