You might have heard about Harpurhey but for all the wrong reasons. Last year BBC3 decided to make a documentary, called People Like Us, about (some of) the people who live there. It caused outrage because of the negative image it gave of the area. Residents packed meetings to sound off about the programme, whilst the local MP and councillors denounced the way in which the documentary portrayed the local community.
Harpurhey is three miles from Manchester city centre: you get there by taking the Rochdale Road out of the city going north, but not very far. The statistics for this area are shocking. In 2013 Greater Manchester Poverty Commission showed that Harpurhey was in the UK’s top 60 for high levels of deprivation, including very low income, unemployment, poor job or education prospects and high crime levels.
Behind these statistics, and beyond the main drag of Rochdale Road, a little green paradise has been created by the residents of Cypress Road. In 2011 they watched television programmes which alerted them, and many other people, to the threatened destruction of bees. As Richard Searle, one of residents, says;
“I thought I had better do something for the bees. I thought it was important to look at the world through the eyes of the bees.”
In 2011 they decided to set up the Baytrees Bee Project which is not just about setting up a beehive but is also a project which involves providing an environment that will help the bees thrive. Six people are directly involved in looking after the bees while many local people have taken part in activities to support the development and growth of the bees. As the project develops there are day-to-day problems eg on the day I visited a tree had fallen on the hives. Richard filmed co-worker Kay sorting it out, and the footage immediately went onto Youtube.
Kay Phillips says; ” I felt it was important to challenge the idea that it is a middle class pursuit.
‘What! honey from Harpurhey?'”
And its not just in Harpurhey that people have reacted to the decline by a third since 2007 in the British bee population: there has been an amazing response up and down the country with some people setting up hives in their back gardens while others have decided to grow the kinds of flowers and plants that will best help the bee population to thrive.
Manchester is an important place for a revival in beekeeping. The first industrial city in the world, it took the worker bee as its mascot and you can find it emblazoned on the Town Hall and many other buildings and parks. Richard sees it as important to link up the symbol of the worker bee and Manchester’s ambition to be the first pollinator friendly city. “It would give hope to new industrial cities of China when they look out on their smog each day.”
Manchester Bee
Manchester City Council has supported bee projects such as BBP by providing funding for training up new beekeepers, but it is the project’s aim is to be self-sustaining through their sales of honey.
Kay explains; “In the first year we only produced enough honey to put into tiny little pots which we gave away to the people who helped us.” This year they have sold the honey in the local markets as well as in Manchester City Art Gallery. The proceeds go back into resources for the local people, including a community lawnmower.
Honey produced in local hives is superior to that bought in supermarkets or shops because of the very high quality of the product: it is not blended with different honeys as many commercially bought honey products are.
One of the many staggering statistics about bees is that in order to create 60lbs of honey the bees have travelled 3 million miles around Harpurhey which works out 50,000 miles per pound!
That is why environment is so important. It is not just about the bees but it is also about providing an environment in which they will prosper. Harpurhey, it turns out, has a rich habitat, even in the Irk, the local river which Engels described in 1845 in the “The Condition of the Working Class in England” as ” a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of debris and refuse, which it deposits on the shallower right bank”. Nowadays you can find carp ponds in the Irk which probably reflects the lack of industry and population and the continued regeneration of the area.
Local people have become inspired by the bees project and even if they, like me, are wary of becoming directly involved, they have been asking questions to the BBP about what plants they can put in their gardens to feed the bees. Around the streets there are many pretty hanging baskets and the intention is to plant flowers outside the borders of the gardens and on every spare bit of ground.
Richard believes that the bees project and the allotment offer something almost spiritual to the local community. “It feeds the inner peasant, feeding your soul and bees can get you to see the world differently and that is important in everyone’s life.”
Across Manchester city centre there are now beehives on some of the tallest buildings including the Printworks, Manchester Cathedral and the Manchester Museum. The aim is to create a pollinated city where bees can stop for a snack in the bee alternative of Greggs or Cafe Nero. Already church grounds are being turned into wildflower meadows and the aim is to get people in the city who have balconies to grow plants which are bee-friendly.
Since its beginning the BBP has used social media to show people how they started and maintained their bees and it has been a popular and accessible way for viewers to become educated about the bee project. Their next step is to make a film tracing the story of bees in Manchester and Salford. The film is being made with no money, just their equipment and their enthusiasm for the project.
Kay explains; ” Our aim is to explore the symbol of the bees, using the idea of the worker bee as the symbol of Manchester and Salford, and reinterpreting it in 2014 as bees representing the ecological vitality of the cities”. Their film will start in Kersal Vale in Salford and their bee project and then travel down the Irwell into Manchester to map the growth of bees in the city.
It is just one aspect of their bee propaganda to educate and inspire people to take up the cause of saving the bees and creating a better enviroment for them and the people of the city. Nationally the British Beekeepers Association has reported that their winter survival survey shows that the honey bee colony survival rate has improved greatly: “despite the colony losses reported since 2007/8, there has been an upward trend in the total number of honey bee colonies being managed by members of the BBKA. BBKA membership has more than doubled since 2007, when there were around 11,000 members, to around 24,000 today and consequently the number of colonies is increasing”.
Richard believes; “Our aim is to create a pollinated city, to improve the quality of life of all people in the city. It is a plan for a better future and it is really important for the bees but, most of all, for the people.” You can watch the progress of the BBP at
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Still the Enemy Within (Cornerhouse and Moston Miners) an award winning documentary that was funded by individuals and trade unions. The film includes new interviews and archive material that has never been shown before. You probably know the story, 160,000 miners challenged the Tory Government over its, secret, plans to close down the coal industry. This is their story and the story of the many people who joined the NUM in what became probably one of the most important disputes in recent times. At the Cornerhouse event there will be a Q&A with the producer Mark Lacey and Cath Booth who was involved with the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.
what it means to be an activist and I mean not just going to meetings but physically opposing fascists on the street!. Mike Luft has been active in anti-fascist struggles all his life. He says; ““I grew up in Manchester in the 1940s and my family background included Rumanian, Russian, Irish and Scottish roots. In my neighbourhood I was surrounded by refugees. But it was a political, a communist background where opposing racism and particularly fascism was part of my lifeblood.” Mike is talking about his life and struggles at the WCML in Salford on Wednesday 15 October at 630pm. Further info contact enquiries@wcml.org.uk.
… Sampling Belle Vue: a 21st-century remix at Chethams Library. Loved this fascinating mix of Art students reinterpreting the BV archive. Didnt know the archive existed and there are some wonderful artefacts including postcards, guides, ceramics and photographs. The students looked at these and reinterpreted them to reflect their viewpoint. They were particularly horrified by the way the animals in the zoo were treated and this is shown in some of the pieces that they produced. Chethams is a little gem and well worth a visit.
.Cassette boy has mashed up Cameron’s conference speech and produced the Cameron rap ….hilarious! See
lipstick socialist 