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Field boundary walls and garden walls sometimes have holes in them deliberately made: among the commonest are 'bee boles' niches in garden or house walls where a couple of small hives could be placed. Then there were falcon niches, not so large as bee boles, in those gardens whose owners practised hawking. In Mr and Mrs.Smith's garden wall at Walcote Manor Farm there is a series of niches in an obviously old brick wall: six of them and too small for bee hives. There are small holes beneath the large ones to accommodate perches for the birds, though the wood has gone. The puzzle is that these niches are only a foot or so from the ground - and why six of them? Does any reader know of anything similar in the area? At one time they must have been common.
© Alcester & District Local History Society 1991