Royal recognition for Shropshire beekeepers
Shropshire Beekeepers Association, a group of volunteers based at Conduit Head, Shrewsbury have been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.
Shropshire Beekeepers Association is one of eight Shropshire organisations out of the 281 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year.
Since 2016 a small group of Shropshire Beekeepers Association volunteers have restored and transformed the historic one-hectare Conduit Head site and its historic buildings into a lively base and beekeeping training centre for the Association’s 350 members. The wells of Conduit Head supplied Shrewsbury with drinking water from Elizabethan times until 1947. The wells still remain, as does the Grade II listed Cistern House dating back to 1578.
As a visitor centre, it is a community resource dedicated to the honeybee, pollinators, and the complex ecosystems to which they are essential and upon which they depend. Wildlife has been encouraged by planting wildflower meadows, hedgerows, a traditional orchard, herb garden, shrubbery, and flower bed; a marshland area, wildlife pond and stream revived; bird boxes, bat boxes, hedgehog hotels and log piles for reptiles and insects, installed.
SBKA Chair Glyn Williams said: “We are proud of what we have created and feel both humbled and energized by the recognition of the phenomenal effort of our volunteers conferred by the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. Although we have restored vandalized buildings and developed the grounds it would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our volunteers. We have been grateful for the support and avice from many local businesses and organisations. The award gives further impetus to the development of the site for the enjoyment and learning of future generations."
