Bees create a nest in postbox at Carfax in Oxford

Bees had decided to create a nest inside one of the postboxes at Carfax in Oxford city centre and were determined to stay there.

As you can see in Picture 1, beekeeper Bill Humphries donned his protective gear in June 1992 to remove them.

Shoppers no doubt steered clear as he got to work, making sure they didn’t get stung.

We don’t know if Oxford Mail photographer John Lawrence was similarly protected – if he wasn’t, we assume he stayed well clear and used his long lens.

Once Mr Humphries had removed the bees from the right hand box, he was happy, face mast removed, to have his picture taken posting his own letters.

But to be sure, we note in Picture 2, he chose the left hand ‘bee-less’ postbox!

Beekeeper Bill Humphries at the postbox at Carfax in 1992 where bees made a nest (Image: Oxford Mail)

Mr Humphries may have had his feet on the ground, but that wasn’t the case at Enstone, near Chipping Norton, in 1978 – see Pictures 3 and 4.

The Oxford Mail reported: “Bats in the belfry are commonplace, but at St Kenelm’s church at Enstone, a swarm of bees made its home in the bell tower.

Bees are removed from the belfry (Image: Oxford Mail)

“A ‘congregation’ of about 20,000 bees settled in one of the highest and most inaccessible corners of the church – inside the cavity of a two-feet thick wall.

“Well protected and precariously perched on top of a ladder, retired sub-postmaster Hedley Clarke attempted to coax the swarm out of the wall.

“Helped by Richard Harding, from the village post office, he cut out a section of the nest and put it into a box on the floor of the bell tower.

“But even when the bees decided to abandon their cavity home, Mr Clarke still faced the problem of lowering the box and its contents from the top of the tower to the ground.

“He managed to get the bees down the staircase and took them two and a half miles away.”

Mr Clarke, a keen beekeeper, who had six hives producing honey, said: “I got stung only twice.”

The Oxford Mail headline above the story read: ‘They’ve buzzed off.’

Picture 5 shows Wolvercote beekeeper Mr E D Williams, without protection, confidently removing a swarm which invaded the Oxford University cricket ground in the Parks in 1962.

Bees at the Oxford University Parks (Image: Oxford Mail)

The bees held up play in the University’s match against Worcestershire as they buzzed across the field towards the pavilion which quickly emptied.

They then settled on a gate before Mr Williams collected them. He later removed a second swarm from St Hugh’s College.

Bees at Blenheim Palace (Image: Oxford Mail)

In Picture 6, we see a less dramatic scene – bee enthusiasts at Blenheim Palace in 1967 looking at an ‘apidictor’, which measures and records sounds in a hive.