Chalfont St Giles is a Chiltern village on the River Misbourne, with a notably intact medieval village green, duck pond and flint church, set within a patchwork of beechwood, rough pasture and hedged fields on the clay-with-flints plateau south of Amersham. The Chalfonts Beekeepers' Society has long been active here, and the combination of Chiltern beech and sweet chestnut woodland, hawthorn-rich hedgerows and the Misbourne watermeadow margins makes the parish an excellent bee territory well into October on the ivy flow.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old yew and lime of the churchyard and village green area, in the mature garden trees of the Deanway and Silver Hill Victorian villa plots, along the scrubby rough-grazed margins of Layters Green and Chalfont Common, and in the eaves and chimney stacks of the older flint and brick cottages in the Seer Green and Jordans lanes.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
HP9 2XG· approx. 3 km
Visit websiteWD3 1FA· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteHA4 7JT· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Chiltern beech hangers produce an unusual honeydew flow some years; lime, field maple and sweet chestnut are the more reliable June flows through Marlow, High Wycombe, Amersham and Chalfont. In the Vale, oilseed rape dominates the spring and field beans support early June. Bramble is dense on the commons; rosebay willowherb fills every beech-clearing on the scarp. A strong late ivy flow runs across the flint-walled villages and ancient churchyards of the scarp foot.
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