Biddulph is a market town on the western fringe of the Staffordshire Moorlands, set on a high sandstone valley between the Potteries and the Cheshire plain, with the Victorian walled gardens of Biddulph Grange (National Trust) as its most celebrated landscape feature. The North Staffordshire BKA covers the area, and the surrounding landscape — the estate grounds and walled garden of Biddulph Grange with its extraordinary plant collection, the heather and bilberry on Biddulph Moor above the town, the Dane valley farmland and hedgerow hawthorn below, and the bramble and rosebay willowherb of the former colliery margins — gives local bees an unusual range from formal garden exotica to open moorland.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the Biddulph Grange estate garden walls and parkland trees, in the older stone and brick terrace eaves of the High Street and Bradley Green Road conservation area, on the heather and bilberry moorland margins at Biddulph Moor and Marsh Green, and along the Dane valley hedgerow hawthorn and sycamore lane margins at Gillow Heath and Mow Cop.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CW11 2UR· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteST9 0EL· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteSK7 1PS· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape leads the early flow across the arable belt. Cannock Chase contributes a significant late heather crop — bell first, then ling — on its extensive sandy commons. The Staffordshire Moorlands add bilberry and small ling patches; lime in Stafford, Lichfield, Burton and Stoke-on-Trent fills the June streets. Bramble and rosebay willowherb are everywhere in the former colliery and brickworks land. Ivy carries hives into autumn on old red-brick terraces and the greenbelt villages.
More on beekeeping in StaffordshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
