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Thousands of unusual visitors have been removed from popular Derbyshire estate, Tissington Hall, during lockdown. Around 3,000 honey bees have been carefully extracted from the roof space to enable critical roof repairs to take place to the Grade II* listed Hall.

The work, which would ordinarily be funded by profits made from weddings and public openings, has been made possible after the estate received a £25,000 grant from Historic England’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund, which supports organisations that have been severely affected by the impact of coronavirus. This comes as the estate, which is managed by Fisher German, prepares to re-open to the public on 4 July with its holiday cottages and apartments open to guests. Herberts Tearooms is also set to re-open and will be offering a takeaway service on Wednesdays to Sundays from 11am to 4pm from 8 July. Although the hall will not be open for guided tours, the estate will be welcoming enquiries from those wishing to view it as a wedding venue. Our estate management team called in Derby based CSS Pest Services to ensure the bees could be safely rehomed from the roof space ahead of repairs taking place. 

Sir Richard FitzHerbert Bt, owner of Tissington Hall, said: “We have used the lockdown period as an opportunity to complete work on the estate, and when looking into the roof repairs we were extremely surprised to find we had received a visit from a swarm of around 3,000 bees. Fisher German sourced a company which safely extracted the bees ready to be rehomed and found that they had made several pounds of high-quality honey. The lockdown period has had a huge impact on the hospitality industry, so we were extremely pleased to receive the grant from Historic England to support us in protecting such an important heritage asset. We also received a grant from OLEV (the Office of Low Emission Vehicles) to have an electric vehicle charging point installed – quite a unique feature for a Grade II* listed house.

Tissington is highly popular with walkers and cyclists so the re-opening of Herberts Tearooms is extremely positive. We are also happy to say that the other village businesses are re-opening as well, including Edward & Vintage Sweet Shop and On a Wick & a Prayer Candle shop. We hope that this along with all of the wonderful local walks and views attract plenty of visitors to the area. We are also expecting ‘staycations’ to become even more popular and have already received a number of bookings for our holiday cottages.”

For further information about Tissington Hall visit http://www.tissingtonhall.co.uk/

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