Market Overton is an ironstone village on the high limestone plateau at the northern tip of Rutland, just south of the Lincolnshire border above the Vale of Catmose. St Peter and St Paul's church preserves fragments of Saxon stonework in its tower, and the surrounding ridge farmland has yielded Roman coins and pottery over the centuries, hinting at long settlement. The wide open arable landscape and the calcareous grassland along the ancient trackway of Sewstern Lane provide a reliable spring flow of oilseed rape and hawthorn blossom before summer clover takes over.
Collectors are called to swarms in the hawthorn and blackthorn hedgerows along the Teigh Road and the Wymondham lane, in the garden trees and stone-walled outbuildings of the older farmsteads, around the churchyard yew and the iron-rich stone walling of St Peter and St Paul's, and in the scrub vegetation along the elevated field margins above Cottesmore.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE9 4HZ· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteNG318JS· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteNG34 7TW· approx. 35 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens on blackthorn and hawthorn along the ancient limestone hedgerows, followed by sycamore and oilseed rape across the arable fields east of Oakham and Ketton. Lime flowers well in both market towns in June; white clover and field margins carry colonies through July. The reservoir shore at Rutland Water supports willowherb and wild angelica into late summer, and field maple, bramble and ivy on the churchyard walls close the year through October and November.
More on beekeeping in RutlandReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
