Lesley - thought would get the comment out here rather than have it tail away. You are making extremely sensible and constructive points. I hate doing the 'yes, but...' stuff, but there are problems.

We have approached beekeepers in the past, and they have looked at the forty foot drop from the chimney and politely declined. Reasonably enough, I suppose. I wouldn't like to go scrabbling around on a roof trying to extract a bees nest from inside what I think is a blocked off chimney - it's the vent, I think, from OH's room where the fire is long since bricked up. I don't think there is a big hole, I think it is a little hole that the bees squeeze through.

Also, Health and Safety are actually very reasonable in insisting that legally when it gets that high, you need expensive scaffolding. Eventually it could get done in winter, when the bees are quiet, so I suppose that one day I will have enough scraped together, though not soon at the rate little bear is requiring funds.

It isn't insurmountable, in theory, because if we had a stove in the study you could use ladders to go up the house at the back, which is not as tall due to the slope of the land, and over the top as the chimney is at the roof ridge and not half way down, like the one with the bees. There are no nearby bees nests, and the bees the other side of the house have always been very placid when it comes to people climbing around on the roof. The chimney from the study has been repointed. Also the requirement to extend the hearth around the fireplace would be easier as the room is bigger. The wooden fireplace surround is gorgeous as well, at least eight feet tall with an inset mirror and sort of deco columns.

OH would never, ever countenance it.