A sketch of Fairlawn by WilliamLAUNCH OF BRITISH BEE
Freeman, 1891
JOURNAL
In 1872 Charles left the London District
School to launch the British Bee
Journal (BBJ) and to develop his
School of Apiculture. He taught Charles Abbott with George Hobbs, a
carpenter who made many of themovable-frame comb beekeeping to
hivesthose who wanted to learn about the,
then, new methods. group of beekeepers in West London
The launch of the new magazine was suggested that, as a follow up to the
not easy. Charles tackled the problem Manchester show, there should be a
with his usual enthusiasm leafleting all show in the great exhibition hall of the
known beekeepers, clergy and Crystal Palace. This had by then been
agriculturalists. Some 5000 copies of removed from Hyde Park to Sydenham
the first two issues were distributed. Hill in South London. The management
The end result was sales of 200 of the Crystal Palace had endowments
subscriptions at 10s/6d giving a gross that enabled them to support small
income of £105 to cover the exhibitions. Once beekeepers gathered
production and distribution of 12 to plan the show at the Crystal Palace
issues per year. the idea of a Bee-Keepers Guild
developed into the formation of theThe editor’s masthead read:
British Bee-Keepers' Association in
[The Journal] guarantees to its May 1874.
subscribers sound practical replies As proprietor and publisher of the only
to all queries on Bee Management national bee journal in the United
and, in urgent cases of difficulty, Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
immediate replies by post or Charles Abbott had a profound
telegraph if desired. influence on the development of the called Fairlawn in Southall which had
The subscription was payable in national associations of beekeepers in ample grounds with room both for the
advance. Issue 1 volume 1 was dated the British Isles. Indeed he was family and the School of Apiculture.
Saturday 1 May 1873. For the second elected treasurer of the British The Fairlawn grounds extended to
volume Charles Abbott had entered Bee-Keepers' Association (BBKA), a nearly four acres of paddock, orchard,
into a joint publishing agreement with post he held for some years. lawn, garden and out-houses. In those
John Strangeways, of London, who days much of the surrounding land was In time there developed a feeling
maintained his connection with the still pasture, orchards and gardens andwithin the relatively small group who
journal as its printer in subsequent therefore good beekeeping country.played an active part in the BBKA, that
years. Kent and Co, also of London, Fairlawn was some six minutes walkhe was having too close a link with
became its publisher. This firm had from the Great Western Railwayorganised beekeeping. He was, after
already published two editions of mainline station at Southall. It dulyall, on the BBKA Committee and a
Alfred Neighbour’s The Apiary in 1865 became the publication address of thejudge at shows but also a competitor
and 1866. British Bee Journal. in both the honey and trade classes.
In 1873, through his journal, Charles Charles served as a national lecturer A measure of Charles Abbott’s
Abbott was able to publicise the Great and demonstrator with his own school enthusiasm can be seen in the title of
International Exhibition of Fruit held in of apiculture. In the end Charles a 75-page leaflet he produced in 1876,
the Botanical Gardens at Old Trafford, Abbott came to see that he should Beekeeping for the Millions, as part of
Manchester. This exhibition had distance himself from the BBKA. He a series of leaflets condensed from the
competitive classes for hives, bees, even suggested that a rival guild British Bee Journal for the British
honey and equipment, for which a should be formed. Bee-Keepers' Association.
total of £25 in prize money and silver
and bronze medals were on offer. FAIRLAWN To cope with the growing correspondence
BBKA BEGINNINGS At first Charles Abbott’s 'School of and the production of the British BeeApiculture' was held in the small back Journal Charles employed his daughter
Following the Manchester Exhibition, garden of his house in the main street Maud. When she married William
an anonymous writer to the BBJ of Hanwell. By 1876, Charles' wife Freeman in 1879 she was replaced by
suggested the formation of a Ellen had started house hunting and her sister Nellie, who had been
Bee-Keepers Guild. In addition, a in the end she found a large residence helping her mother run Fairlawn.
Bee Craft digital December 2008 Page 19
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