Sawston is a large industrial village south of Cambridge on the chalk fringe of the Cam valley, historically a centre of parchment-making and tanning using the soft water of the Granta chalk springs, and today a mixed commuter and light-industrial settlement at the foot of the chalk escarpment. The Cam valley meadows and riverside willows below the village, the chalk downland verges and field margins rising south towards Babraham and Pampisford, and the hedgerow hawthorn and field maple of the mid-Cambridgeshire arable fringe give local bees a productive season spanning spring oilseed rape through summer white clover to late ivy.
Collectors in Sawston regularly attend swarms in the riverine willows and watermeadow margins of the Granta at Dernford Mill, in the older garden fruit trees and hawthorn hedgerows of the Mill Lane and High Street conservation area, in the chalk downland hedge banks on the escarpment fringe towards Babraham and Hildersham, and in chimney stacks and roof voids of the older village and inter-war properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CB22 4PB· approx. 3 km
Visit websiteCB10 1ES· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteCM23 3UU· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the dominant early flow across the Fens; field beans add to the picture in June. Hawthorn, blackthorn and cherry plum fill the farm hedges that still mark every drove road. The lime avenues of Cambridge, Ely and Huntingdon provide a concentrated urban flow, and willow, hemp agrimony and purple loosestrife along the Great Ouse and Cam sustain hives well into July. Late summer brings sainfoin on chalk field margins and a modest heather crop on Thetford Heath gravels on the county edge.
More on beekeeping in CambridgeshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
