On the beautiful Wiltshire estate where Nicola and James Reed live, there's a veritable hive of activity. Dotted around the landscaped grounds of the property, parts of which were built in Tudor times, are 150 beehives, lovingly attended to by queen bee Nicola and her husband.
As the couple buzz around the idyllic five acres of land surrounding their country home near the market town of Malmesbury for this exclusive HELLO! photoshoot, their passion for all things bee is clear.
Keen apiarist Nicola has turned her hobby into a successful business and she waxes lyrical about Beeble, a delicious range of honey-flavoured whisky, gin, rum and tequila, which is flying off the shelves. As the couple tell us in this exclusive interview, it all started with a single hive that James – chairman and chief executive of recruitment company Reed – was given as a gift.
LIFE-CHANGING SURPRISE
"A great friend gave my husband a hive for his 50th birthday," Nicolas says. "But he was a bit horrified and wasn't sure whether he’d like to become an apiarist. I volunteered to take on the hive and went on a course in the Cotswolds – and I was just amazed by the bees."
Indeed, the busy insects are now the focal point of the property where Nicola and James raised their six children. The couple bought the estate 20 years ago after spying an advert in Country Life magazine. Intrigued, they booked a viewing and were immediately smitten, despite its slightly shabby state.
"We both fell in love with it because it was unspoiled and hadn't been torn apart and redone," James tells us. "It had a lot of really original charm. It had been in the same family for a very long time and had obviously been loved by them. But it needed updating."
They immediately set to work, rewiring the house and installing new plumbing while respecting the integrity and charm of the building. Parts of the structure were listed, meaning renovations were limited, although they managed to combine several old sculleries into a modern kitchen, and redecorated the other rooms.
Despite these touches, the rest of the property retains its historical elements – something they are both immensely proud of, as James explains. "This was originally a farm that served Malmesbury Abbey; then it was developed by a man called Giles Earl, who built the central piece of the house in 1658.
"There was a later extension in 1740, so it's evolved over time. It's got a royal coat of arms, so it was obviously a royalist house in the Civil War."
The house also boasts a well-appointed library, while quirks of the building have been transformed into several different living spaces. "We found a priest hole – a little room that was hidden – and turned it into a play area for our grandchildren," Nicola says.
"When we first moved in, we were walking in the garden and I pointed to two windows and said: 'James, where do they go?' We then found that the attic rooms had been blocked off. We opened them up again and now we have a TV room up there."
James let Nicola, a trained artist, lead the direction of the look of the interior. "It feels contemporary but it’s also got all the traditional integrity," he says. "Nicola is very good at picking paintings. She has a great eye – which she's quite free to point out that I lack – so I let her get on with it. That’s why it looks great."
Nicola continues: "It's like a blank canvas on which to try to mix the old with the new. I’ve really enjoyed doing that, and also integrating the garden by bringing flowers from there inside the house."
The renovation of the gardens was a separate project, overseen by esteemed landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, an advisor to Historic Royal Palaces. "He kindly came over to this dilapidated house we'd bought and gave us a vision for a paddock and a vegetable garden," Nicola says.
BACK TO BASICS
James picks up the story. "Todd was very excited when he saw the house, because the integrity of the space was still there and he was keen to re-establish it all," he says.
During the works, they found a piece of treasure in a salvage yard: a cupola from the Henry VII chapel in Westminster Abbey. That is now a centrepiece in the newly renovated grounds while the walled gardens house many hives, plus chickens. "There's quite a lot of history here, which is what I love about the place," James says.
"There's a bit of graffiti from 1805 from a man who says he was footman to the MP of Crick." They are also very fond of a large oak tree, which they've been told is between 1,000 and 1,500 years old.
"We have six children, and if we all hold hands, we can just go round it," James says. "Our first grandson was named underneath it on a sunny day three years ago."
Not surprisingly, the house is at the centre of family life, with the Reed offspring gravitating back whenever they can – all but their youngest son have left home. This includes celebrating big occasions there, such as the wedding of their daughter Rosie in August.
The bees played a big part in that celebration, with Nicola adhering to a traditional folk ceremony before the nuptials. "It's folklore to go and inform the bees and tell them what’s going on. I feel a real affinity with them and I know they know me. I feel as though I have a real relationship with my bees," she says.
MUCH TO LEARN
No one was more taken aback than Nicola when she developed such an affinity for beekeeping. "I was very surprised; it’s been a real learning curve for me. They're so focused – and if we were as concerned about our planet as they are about their colony, the world would be a better place.
"We have so much to learn from bees, and they've been around for a lot longer than we have. I learn something new from them every time I tend them." And despite his initial reluctance, James – whose father founded the Reed recruitment agency in 1960 – is now a convert too, and has even installed a hive on the roof of his London office.
“I was slower to discover the wonders of bees, but I'm very glad I have. Nicola seemed to be enjoying working with her hives and sometimes she would ask me to help. I found myself really enjoying it, too.
"Nicola does most of it, though; I’m not as competent as she is, but I do my best to help. She's definitely the queen bee and I'm a willing drone."
WINNING FORMULA
Beeble was established around six years ago, when Nicola was stung by the fact that her homegrown honey didn't sell at a farmers' market. "I was amazed, because it takes a bee its whole lifetime to make half a teaspoon full of honey," she says. So she began to experiment.
"I infused some honey into a bottle of whisky, put it into medicinal bottles and took it back to the market. It flew out the door like hot cakes –and that became Beeble."
The company is working on a non-alcoholic drink and Nicola and James also run beekeeping courses with educational company Idler. Both are also involved in Big Give, a charity funding platform established by James's father. As if that isn't enough to keep Nicola busy, she's also involved in charity Bees for Development.
"It enables people abroad to keep bees commercially. Having a couple of hives is quite low-cost, but you can sell wax and honey at quite a premium," she says.
CREATIVE OUTLET
In what little spare time she has, Nicola indulges her love of painting. "I paint the bees and the gardens all the time, and for Beeble, I've painted lots of illustrations and branding." And what does she think of the fact that her hobby has become very trendy, adopted by stars including David Beckham?
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"The more beekepers there are, the better. I would encourage anyone to keep bees – you can have a hive in your garden and just leave it be. It's really good for the environment."