Bee swarm in Wadhurst? Help is a minute away.

Wadhurst is a High Weald ridgeline village — its church holds more cast-iron memorial slabs than any other in England, a reminder that the surrounding ironstone hills powered the Wealden iron industry for centuries. The woodland, coppice and ghyll streams of the Bewl Water catchment and the High Weald AONB surround the village, providing a rich bee forage of ancient oak and chestnut coppice, dense hawthorn hedges on heavy clay field margins, bramble in every ghyll, and sweet chestnut blossom heavy from late June. Ashdown Forest heather lies some twelve miles to the west, reachable by many local beekeepers who migrate hives for the late July crop. High Weald Beekeepers and Weald BKA both serve this part of the county.

The early flow starts on blackthorn and wild cherry, before hawthorn lights the hedges of the Weald. Late May to July carries the colonies on sweet chestnut around Heathfield, bramble across every common and hedge bank, and — most characteristically — heather on Ashdown Forest from late July into August, giving the dark, jelly-like Ash Down heather honey some members still cut-comb for show. Ivy closes the year on sheltered sandstone lanes and the tall old churchyards of Rye, Lewes and Battle.