Corsham is a historic stone-built town on the Wiltshire–Somerset border, once a centre of the Bath stone cloth trade and home to Corsham Court, an Elizabethan manor with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The West Wiltshire BKA covers this area, and the surrounding landscape gives local bees a rich season: the lime and sweet chestnut avenues of the Corsham Court pleasure grounds carry June, while the hedged limestone farmland of the Lacock and By Brook valleys contributes hawthorn, sycamore and field maple through May. Box Hill and the ancient woodland of Colerne Down add bilberry and woodland flowers; oilseed rape is common on the farmland east of Chippenham. Ivy on the characteristic Corsham Box stone walls closes a long year.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature parkland trees and walled gardens of the Corsham Court grounds, along the By Brook riverside willows and watermeadow between Box and Lacock, in the historic stone-built properties and churchyard trees of the High Street conservation area, on the ancient woodland rides of Corsham Park and Box Hill, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older limestone-built terraced properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SN12 6ES· approx. 8 km
Visit websitebs313ep· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteSN10 2LA· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Early blackthorn and hawthorn along the cowslip-strewn down edges open the year, followed by oilseed rape on the clay vale around Chippenham. Sainfoin is still grown here, and chalk grassland herbs — thyme, marjoram, knapweed, yellow rattle — give a herb-scented character to summer Wiltshire honey that connoisseurs notice. Lime lines Salisbury, Marlborough and Devizes streets; sweet chestnut at Savernake contributes to June. A small but reliable late ivy flow on flint churchyards closes a long chalkland season.
More on beekeeping in WiltshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
