Ampthill is a handsome Georgian market town on the Greensand Ridge, surrounded by the parkland of Ampthill Great Park, Maulden Wood, and the sweet-chestnut coppice of Flitton Moor. The acid soils of the Ridge support heather, bilberry and old sweet chestnut that give local bees a notably different flow from the chalk towns to the south, and the parkland's veteran limes and chestnuts are consistently productive through June.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the parkland lime and sweet-chestnut trees of Ampthill Great Park, in the hedgerow oaks and hawthorn of the Greensand Ridge lanes towards Clophill and Millbrook, in the older garden remnants and walled kitchen gardens of the Georgian houses on Church Street and Woburn Street, and in the clay-tile roofs and chimney stacks of the older town-centre cottages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
MK9 3EP· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteSG6 1NX· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteAL7 3TT· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the dominant early flow across central Beds, supplemented by field beans. The Greensand Ridge brings sweet chestnut and bramble in the woods of Woburn, Aspley and Sandy. Lime lines the Georgian streets of Bedford and the older parts of Ampthill and Leighton Buzzard. Chalk grassland herbs — wild thyme, marjoram, knapweed — are still found on the downland fringe near Dunstable. Rosebay willowherb in the disused brickworks is a minor but characteristic flow; ivy on limestone village walls finishes the year.
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