Lambourn is a small market town and racehorse-training centre high on the Berkshire Downs, surrounded by chalk downland grazed by thoroughbreds and rich in wildflowers. The Newbury Beekeepers serves this corner of the Downs, and the surrounding landscape — the sainfoin, wild thyme, marjoram and knapweed of the chalk grassland, the Lambourn and its chalkstream watermeadow willows, the downland hedgerow hawthorn and blackthorn of the Aldbourne and East Garston lanes, and the valley-bottom orchards of Eastbury and Great Shefford — gives local bees some of the most botanically diverse downland forage in southern England.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and churchyard yew and lime trees of the village and town conservation area, along the Lambourn chalkstream riverside willows at Eastbury and Upper Lambourn, in the stable complexes and farmstead buildings of the racing yards, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older flint and brick downland cottages and town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
RG14 1AY· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteSN25 4TG· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteOX14 1QY· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The chalk of the Berkshire Downs around Lambourn provides sainfoin, wild thyme and knapweed; oilseed rape bridges the early flow. Windsor Great Park contributes a textbook June lime and sweet-chestnut crop, while Swinley and Crowthorne heaths give a late bell and ling heather flow on the sandy commons — one of the strongest heathland flows in southern England. Rosebay willowherb fills the MoD and railway land corridors, and ivy on the Thames-side villages closes the year.
More on beekeeping in BerkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
