Harold Basketfield was one of the most active and influential members of Kidderminster Beekeepers’ Association in the second half of the twentieth century. It was because he was always generously willing to pass on his expertise and for his selfless service to the Kidderminster branch that he was admired and respected.
Harold was born in 1924 in Coleshill and the family moved to Castle Hill Farm in Wolverley in 1934. Harold started work as an assistent gardener at Wolverley Court when he was fourteen. He met his wife Marjorie Andrews towards the end of the Second World War and they married the week after the war ended in 1945. Marjorie’s family business, which Harold joined, was market gardening, and their first house was on the nursery site on Birmingham Road.
Harold had begun keeping bees in his twenties during the war. He learnt from Bob Bradford from Blakedown and Bob’s cousin Tom from Malvern, and studied on Jim Crundwell’s courses at Pershore College. To the regret of many, though, he never became a show judge, at which he would have excelled.
Renowned as an expert beekeeper, he was said truly to understand bees and their moods, being able to sense the state of the colony from the moment he lifted off the roof. An example of his skill was when a swarm landed on his brother Geoff’s car in the garage at Wolverley. Unfortunately Geoff’s veil was in the garage, and there was no way he was going in to get it, so he called upon Harold for help. Harold, without veil or gloves, took the handbrake off and pushed the car out of the garage, then calmly collected the swarm in his skep, for which he earned a photograph in the Shuttle.
The photograph above of Harold’s skep catching the swarm from his brother’s car was sent to us by Beryl Buckley, Geoff’s daughter. It was taken by Beryl’s mother. Beryl relates that Geoff took a video of the incident which was shown on You’ve Been Framed! on Saturday 3 October 1998.
Harold was many times the winner of the prize cups at the Honey Show, and when failing health compelled him to give up his beloved bees in 1997 many of his fellow members thought their chances of honey show success had greatly increased. He was not only successful in beekeeping, though, and the plants he contributed to the bring-and-buy sales were much sought after. Sadly Harold lived only until the following year when his loss was keenly felt.
The Harold Basketfield Memorial Lecture was instituted in his honour and the first one was given at the County AGM on 17 April 1999.