Cheddar is a large village and tourist centre on the southern lip of the Mendip Hills, at the mouth of the celebrated Cheddar Gorge, where the Yeo rises and limestone cliffs up to 137 metres high carry ancient scrub woodland. The North Somerset Mendip branch of Somerset Beekeepers covers the village and the gorge plateau. Early spring hawthorn and blackthorn flower along the gorge walls and the south-facing limestone scarp; the Cheddar strawberry fields and market-garden holdings around Nyland bring a complementary flow of soft fruit blossom; sycamore, bramble and field scabious follow on the Mendip plateau; and the Yeo riverside willows and loosestrife carry the forage season deep into August.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old stone cottages and walled tea-garden courtyards of the gorge village, in the hedgerow hawthorns above Tweentown and on Holwell Road, in the scrubby limestone verges of the National Nature Reserve, and in the stone-built garden walls and barn eaves of the farms and camping grounds on the plateau above the gorge.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BS27 3AA· approx. 0 km
Visit websiteBS40 5DU· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteBS24 7AY· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The apple orchards of Taunton Deane, Glastonbury and the Tone Valley give an early, intense flow in May; sycamore and hawthorn run behind. Lime scents the streets of Bath and Wells in June; bramble blankets every hedge. The Levels contribute a long late flow on willowherb, loosestrife and himalayan balsam along the rhynes. Mendip provides limestone grassland herbs — wild thyme, marjoram, knapweed — and the Quantocks give a small but real late heather supplement. Ivy closes the year on old orchards and stone churchyards.
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