Chesham is a market town in the heart of the Chess Valley, the deepest of the Chiltern dry valleys, where the River Chess rises from chalk springs and runs through water meadows flanked by alder and willow. The beech hangers above the town on Lowndes Park and the ridge to Chartridge, combined with the valley floor hay meadows and fruit orchards of the Pednor and Ashley Green fringes, give Chesham bees one of the most varied Chiltern forage landscapes in Buckinghamshire.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature beech and lime of Lowndes Park, along the chalk-stream watermeadow margins of the River Chess near Waterside and Whitehill, in the old garden trees of the Victorian and Edwardian town centre around the Broadway, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older flint and brick cottages in Bellingdon Road and the historic Germain Street conservation area.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
HP9 2XG· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteWD3 1FA· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteHP11 1BJ· approx. 13 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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