Mortimer — sometimes called Stratfield Mortimer — is a large village in south Berkshire between Reading and Basingstoke, set in a gently undulating landscape of mixed deciduous woodland, hedgerow-rich arable farmland and former heathland on the Hampshire-Berkshire border. The woodlands around the village, including the old oak and hazel coppice of the Mortimer West End and Silchester commons, provide an unusually rich early forage of hawthorn blossom, sycamore and field maple; bramble is abundant on the woodland rides and old heath margins; and the mature garden trees of the older village properties carry lime and horse chestnut through June. Reading BKA and Basingstoke & District BKA both cover parts of this area.
Collectors here attend swarms in the mature oak and hazel coppice woodland margins along the footpaths toward Silchester and Tadley, in the garden trees and roof voids of the older tile-hung and brick cottages on The Street and Victoria Road, in the hawthorn hedgerows and scrub of the old-enclosure farmland surrounding the village, and in the bramble and elder of the heathland margins west toward Mortimer West End.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
RG8 8AP· approx. 13 km
RG22 4ET· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteRG40 1AS· approx. 16 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.
