Wallingford is a handsome Thames-side market town in south Oxfordshire with one of the most complete medieval street plans in England, its grid layout and Norman castle earthworks lending the town a quiet distinctiveness. The Oxfordshire BKA covers this area, and the surrounding landscape gives local bees an exceptionally long season: the Thames water meadows at Benson, Crowmarsh and Cholsey carry riverside willows, meadowsweet and purple loosestrife; the Chiltern scarp above Goring and Streatley contributes beech honeydew and wild cherry; oilseed rape is common on the South Oxfordshire plateau, and the chalk grassland above Wittenham Clumps gives knapweed and scabious through the summer. Lime trees line the town's main streets and churchyard; ivy closes the year on the flint-and-brick boundary walls.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old flint and chalk-block properties of the High Street and St Mary's Street conservation area, along the Thames towpath between Wallingford Bridge and Benson, in the churchyard and parkland trees of the town mound and castle earthworks, on the chalk grassland margins of Wittenham Clumps above Little Wittenham, and in the chimney pots of the older Georgian and Victorian brick properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
RG8 0QY· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteRG8 8AP· approx. 14 km
OX14 1QY· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring opens on blackthorn, hawthorn and cherry plum along the stone hedges of the Cotswolds fringe and the chalk lynchets of the Vale. Oilseed rape is locally significant in Cherwell and South Oxfordshire. Beech in the Chilterns contributes to a huge honeydew-flavoured June flow some years, while lime avenues fill central Oxford and the larger market towns. Bramble, rosebay willowherb and field bean carry July; ivy along the Thames valley walls and the old college gardens closes the year.
More on beekeeping in OxfordshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
