Bee swarm in Wellow? Help is a minute away.

Wellow is a stone village in a deep coombe south of Bath, set at the edge of the former Somerset coalfield where limestone gives way to the first Mendip-fringe pastures. A medieval packhorse bridge, a fifteenth-century church with a painted screen, and a scatter of old farmsteads make Wellow one of the most characterful villages in the BANES area. Its hedgerow-rich landscape and the Wellow Brook valley carry bees through a long season from hawthorn in May to ivy in October.

The season opens on blackthorn and willow along the Avon riverside at Saltford and Keynsham, followed by hawthorn and apple blossom through the Chew valley orchards in May. Lime is the defining June flow in Bath — the plane trees of Great Pulteney Street, the lime avenues of Royal Victoria Park and the Prior Park landscape garden are particularly productive. Mendip-fringe limestone grasslands around Chew Magna, Bishop Sutton and Clutton carry wild thyme, knapweed and marjoram from June into July. Bramble is dense on the coal-measure slopes above Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Timsbury; willowherb and himalayan balsam flush the Avon towpath below Saltford and Keynsham through August. Ivy on Bath stone walls and village churchyards closes the year into October.