Recorded in 2016, The Manchester Bees is a half-hour audio documentary by Matthew Beckwith about the bee’s history, present and future and features a number of contributors, including myself.

The documentary begins with a taxi tour around Castlefield with Manchester Taxi Tour’s John Consterdine, talking about the Roman origins of the city through to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and how that links to the Manchester Bee.

Next is Natalie Bradbury talking how she became interested in the bee and its importance to the Cooperative movement, intermixed with my own introduction and a walking tour I undertook with Matthew to point out the bees you can see around the city centre.

The focus then shifts to Amanda McCrann talking about her mosaic work and her roots in Manchester.

The final section moves onto the beehives that appear on city centre buildings, introduced with Virgil’s Bees by Carol-Ann Duffy. John Mouncey and John Peel  are both featured talking about the beehives atop Manchester Art Gallery, working with the bees and the other projects that have been inspired by them.

You can listen to the documentary via the audio player below, or via this link.