Last month, Birmingham Heritage Week brought the city’s rich heritage and vibrant culture into the spotlight. This 10-day festival of Birmingham events invited residents and visitors alike to uncover hidden histories, explore beloved landmarks, and discover new corners of the city, including our own Winterbourne House and Garden.

As part of both Birmingham Heritage Week and the national Heritage Open Days festival, Winterbourne welcomed visitors for a weekend of free entry to the Birmingham Honey Show, hosted in partnership with Birmingham and District Beekeeping Association.

It gets sweeter every year

It is the fifth consecutive year that the show has been hosted at Winterbourne. Our seven-and-a-half-acre botanical garden filled with pollinator-friendly plants provided the perfect setting for an event celebrating the invaluable impact of honeybees on our environment and the cultural significance of the delicious honey that they produce.

The Birmingham Honey Show has grown significantly in the past five years, reflecting the growing awareness of bees’ importance to our ecosystem and the threats they face. Across the two days, we welcomed close to 3,500 visitors to Winterbourne, many of whom were exploring Winterbourne’s historic house and garden for the very first time. The event offered a unique opportunity to learn, explore, and celebrate the much-loved pollinators.

Celebrating sweet flavours of the region

The show boasts 23 competitive categories, with amateur beekeepers from across the region submitting their finest produce and creations for consideration. Entries came from across the local area, including honey produced in Kings Heath, Acocks Green, Moseley, and the Black Country, highlighting the diversity and quality of local beekeeping.

From sweet jars of honey and mouth-watering honey cakes to dry and sweet meads and imaginative honey-themed displays, the three judges had their work cut out as they sampled hundreds of entries to select the winners.

Bee-themed activities create a buzz

Visitors were able to get up-close and inspect observation hives and learn from expert beekeepers who carefully brought their demonstration hives into action for crowds of curious onlookers.

The event showcased the talents of local artists and small businesses, including Milan and Little Brummie Garden Soap, who brought a delightful range of handmade goods inspired by nature and bees. The Lettering Arts Trust joined us, offering stone-carving demonstrations that added a hands-on heritage craft experience to the weekend.

The Birmingham Honey Show continues to grow in scale and popularity, and we’re proud to host an event that celebrates both nature and heritage. If you missed it this year, be sure to join us next September (dates to be announced in due course).