The Dawlish Bee-side Trail

Creativity and action - helping to save bees together

Dawlish is buzzing
Follow the Bee-side trail to discover bee inspired art and craft, bee attracting flowers, and honey!

Einstein predicted, "If bees disappeared from Earth, man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Britain has 254 species of native bees that play an essential role in pollinating flowers.

Did you know we rely on bees to pollinate 1/3 of our food crops?
Yet about one quarter of bees in Britain are now endangered...

Threats to bees:
Loss of habitat, such as hedgerows means there are fewer wildflowers, pollen and nectar collecting sites for honey bees
The use of pesticides as seed dressing weakens bees' immune systems, and poisons them.
Parasitic Varroa mites have devastated honeybee populations and other bee colonies in the wild.
Climate Change-linked wet summers confines honeybees to their hives, enabling the spread of mites, bacteria, and disease.

Community Groups in Dawlish, Cofton, Exeter, Topsham, and Newton Abbot have been working hard to produce bee inspired art and craft work to highlight the plight of bees as part of the Bee-side T.R.A.I.L.
Follow the Bee-side T.R.A.I.L

Starting at the Strand, at Dawlish Co-operative Foodstore, onto Deli Delicious, Poppadums Health Foods, and into Dawlish Library. Across the bridge over the Brook to The Monkey House, The Post Off ice Sorting Office planter, and finishing at Gay's Creamery. From there you can rejoin the main sculpture T.R.A.I.L. located within the flowerbeds near the Tourist Information Office, and down towards the Railway Bridge.

At the Dawlish Co-op, you will find paintings and bees made from recycled materials made by young people at the Grenville Centre, Education Other Than at School, Exeter, from mixed media, waste foam, socks, to draw your attention to the plight of bees; threatened by use of pesticides that get into the pollen which bees collect.

The Co-op has an ethical policy, PLAN BEE, funding bee research and Co-op brand fresh produce is bee friendly too. Plan Bee is a 10 point plan found at: www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/planbee/what-The-Co-operative-is-doing-for-bees/#tenpoint

At Deli Delicious, there are two bees to find with the local honey they stock.
These are a Queen bee, by Lauren Ballard, made as part of a D.A.I.S.I project with All Saints (Marsh) C. of E. Primary School, and a worker bee made by Becca, from the Hoi Shing Chinese Restaurant, Dawlish.

Dawlish Crochet Group made these crocheted and knitted Bees for T.R.A.I.L from oddments of wool. The Group started in 1985, and is part of the Third Age Project. The ladies of Dawlish Crochet Group are pleased to display their bees in 'Poppadums', which stocks a range of local honeys. Their bees will show you where!

From there, across the road to Dawlish Library, here you will find flowers created from recycled materials by the children of Gatehouse Primary School to remind us all to care for our environment by planting bee friendly flowers, shrubs, and trees in our gardens, parks and other public places.

Above them are bees created by young people and their teachers at Teignbridge Link Education Centre, Education Other Than at School, together with a story sack for use in the Library, using fabric scraps and recycled materials.

Also displayed is a cushion: SOS for honey bees, made by a member of Cofton Women's Institute. Look out for their flag, at a jaunty angle from the flagpole, outside the Tourist Information Centre. From Dawlish Library, continue across the Brook to the Monkey House in Brunswick Place. The Topsham School have created bees from disused plant pots, left over from their Eco School gardening projects. See 'the biggest' Pompon Bumblebee created by children at the Churchill Community Centre, Dawlish during Easter Holiday workshops led by Artist Lauren Ballard and Jenny Archer, Community Development worker.

Next to the Monkey House, you will find a planter outside the Sorting Office, where bee friendly wild flowers have been planted, and across the road in a tree beside the Brook, hang Bee Guardians. Created from plastic bottles by Artist, Maddy Norris, whose 'Glimshims' won the shared Artist award in T.R.A.I.L. 2008.

Continue down Brunswick Place until you reach Gay's Creamery, who stock local honey and have offered to support T.R.A.I.L. by displaying the knitted bees made by Cofton Women's Institute.

These bees publicise the W.I.'s national 'SOS for Honey Bees' resolution.
They are campaigning for an increase in government research funding to aid honey bees specifically.