Downend is a residential suburb between Kingswood and Mangotsfield on the eastern edge of Bristol, its Victorian and Edwardian core around Clock Tower and Staple Hill Road giving way to 1930s and postwar estates on the slopes overlooking the Frome valley. E. W. Hornung, creator of Raffles, was born here — though it is the lime trees of Cleeve Road and the mature garden hedgerows of Lodge Road that most interest the local honeybees. Oilseed rape on the fields east of Emersons Green is visible from the high ground in April.
Collectors attend swarms in the lime and sycamore street trees along Cleeve Road and Downend Road, on the garden walls and chimney pots of the older Victorian terraces near the Clock Tower, along the Mangotsfield Branch cycletrack scrub, in the mature hedge gardens of Lodge Road and Buckingham Gardens, and on the allotments and community orchard at Cleeve Hill.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BS1 4QS· approx. 8 km
Visit websitebs313ep· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteBS32 4PG· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the Severn Vale farmland between Thornbury, Oldbury-on-Severn and the M5 corridor gives a strong April to May flow; the flat fields around Olveston and Aust carry it particularly heavily. Hawthorn and blackthorn are dense on the Cotswold edge hedgerows above Wickwar, Rangeworthy and Iron Acton, and the Frome valley farmland east of Yate carries a reliable hawthorn flow in late April. Lime trees line the older streets of Kingswood, Staple Hill and Mangotsfield and carry a June town-centre flow. The Filton Airfield and BAE Systems perimeter scrub carries extensive bramble and rosebay willowherb, and the Frampton Cotterell and Coalpit Heath old colliery reclamation ground is dense with bramble through July and August. Sycamore is abundant along field margins and roadside hedgerows throughout the Cotswold edge; white clover on the improved grasslands of the Severn Vale closes the main flow from June to August. Ivy on the Cotswold limestone walls and the older suburban garden walls closes the year in October.
More on beekeeping in South GloucestershireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
