Barrow Voice was contacted recently by a honey-loving reader: “I’ve recently bought some local honey that is called Barrow House Bees. It’s lovely. I bought it in Sileby. Later I couldn’t find any in Barrow shops. Do you know anything about the honey, its Barrow connections and also, where is Barrow House?”

Intrigued, I agreed to be the sleuth.

The internet led me to a fascinating interview with the owner of Barrow House Bees, Andy Hardy-Smith, who lives in Mountsorrel. He told me that the honey can be bought from Sileby (Glen Lewin Butcher and Derry’s Nursery), Thrussington (Village Shop), Quorn (Bradleys), Rothley (also Bradleys) and Loughborough and Melton markets. But not Barrow.

Andy has about 100 hives all over the place, and yes, a few in Barrow.

But the Barrow connection is there! Andy lived in Barrow for a short while as did his family. The family tree is too complicated to go into but enough to say that both Andy’s grandfathers were very significant Barrow residents. One was Dr Andrew Gray, Barrow’s doctor running the surgery from No 47 Beveridge St, The Chestnuts. He had two bee hives in his lovely garden. The other was Arthur Hardy-Smith who ran a tannery in Leicester (i.e. making leather) and who owned Barrow House, where there was a lovely garden but no bees. Barrow House was demolished in the 1970s and later provided the land for building houses on Cramps Close and Holbourne Close. The Hardy-Smith family donated the island of land behind the house to the village in 1953. It became our lovely Jerusalem traffc island. And incidentally, Dr Eva Shirreffs was Dr Gray’s daughter, Andy’s aunt and she and her husband Dr James Shirreffs took over the Barrow surgery from Eva’s father. They lived in The Mount that overlooks Jerusalem.

When Andy’s grandfather Gray died, Andy took over the bee keeping. He had kept bees at school so knew the ropes and seemed to have an aptitude and certainly an enthusiasm. This has given him a hobby for much of his life (63 years) but on retirement, he decided to switch from being a beekeeper to becoming a bee farmer. A hobby with a serious income. A move from four or five hives to over 100.

To turn hobby into business, Andy needed a name, a brand. At the time (2008) he was living in Willoughby in a house he had named Barrow House in memory of his grandfather Arthur’s lovely home. Hence the business became Barrow House Bees. In 18 years, he has established hives all over Charnwood. His target is 150 to meet his honey demand. It is a labour-intensive ‘hobby’ but fortunately his grandson is now his official apprentice. Together they visit each hive at least once a week while the bees are active and they make equipment for the next season during winter. Eventually his grandson will take over the business.

In the Barrow House Bees advert you will see that Andy’s honey is 100% local, natural and unpasteurised, straight from the hive. Andy doesn’t enjoy the process of extracting the honey – “it’s a messy sticky business”. But he does enjoy talking to his bees and talking about bees. He is anxious to keep his bees healthy and free from parasites and predators. He encourages people to grow bee-friendly flowers in their gardens so the bees have plenty to forage. He commented that the current spate of house building is very bad news for bees because so much vegetation is removed.

If you visit www.barrowhousebees.com you will see the price of different-size jars and be able to order online.

Barrow Voice seems to have cracked the puzzle, and we now understand the Barrow connection. So now we wish Andy and his grandson All the Best in their local bee business enterprise. And if anyone wants to sell Barrow House Bees honey, just let us know!

Judith Rodgers