Toddington is a village on the southern slopes of the Toddington plateau in Central Bedfordshire, at the foot of the Chiltern chalk escarpment and a short distance from junction 12 of the M1. The village green and the medieval church of St George give the settlement an old-fashioned market-village character, and the surrounding landscape — the chalk grassland and scrub of the Chiltern fringe above the village, the oilseed rape and cereal fields of the open clay vale stretching north toward Flitwick, the hawthorn hedgerows of the Houghton Regis and Toddington lanes, and the mature garden trees of the older village properties — gives local bees a varied chalk-scarp and lowland-arable season. The Bedfordshire BKA covers the village.
Swarm collectors attend calls on the mature churchyard limes and sycamores of St George's, in the hawthorn and elder hedgerows on the footpaths toward Tingrith and Hockliffe, in the outbuildings and older stone cottages around the village green, and in the garden trees and roof spaces of the residential streets off the High Street and Leighton Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
MK9 3EP· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteSG6 1NX· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteHP22 5TE· approx. 25 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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