Brighton academic aims to create a buzz at village fair

A Brighton academic will be taking a hive of bees to a honey fair to explain their vital role in fruit pollination.

Dr Karin Alton also aims to spread the word about research being carried out at Sussex University to try to halt the much publicised decline of the bee population.

Dr Alton works in the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at Sussex but is hopping to create a buzz in Ardingly at the village’s first Honey and Apple Fair.

The free fair at St Peter’s Church Centre in Street Lane, Ardingly, near Haywards Heath, takes place from 10am to 2pm on Saturday 1 October.

Angela Southon, who organised the fair, said: “We all know and love honey and its benefits but it’s not widely known that humans have been hunting it for more than 10,000 years.

“Ancient Egyptians used it to sweeten cakes and biscuits, and even in embalming the dead.

“Edward I used it to reunite the warring Welsh tribes, after he had built huge fortifications all across Wales to subdue them, by inviting them to the first honey fair, held inside Conwy Castle 700 years ago.”

Anyone with a harvest of apples is invited to take them along with some washed out plastic milk bottles and have them turned into freshly squeezed apple juice.

Profits from the day will benefit village charities.