Wadebridge is a market town on the Camel estuary in north Cornwall, bridging the tidal limit of the river where the medieval town bridge has stood for over five centuries. The Camel Trail — Cornwall's most popular cycling and walking route — runs west to Padstow along the estuary and east up the wooded Camel valley to Bodmin. The estuary margins of reed, willow and saltmarsh, the hawthorn-lined valley farmland, the gorse-covered plateau above the town and the orchards of the Camel valley give local bees a varied estuarine and agricultural forage. Wadebridge Beekeepers covers the town and the north Cornwall river valleys.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Bridge Street and Molesworth Street conservation areas, along the Camel estuary willows and reed-bed margins of the Camel Trail, on the gorse and hawthorn hedges of the plateau farmland above the town, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older stone and slate-roofed properties of the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PL27 7DD· approx. 0 km
Visit websitePL30 5AE· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteTR2 4LG· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens with gorse on every headland, flowering intermittently most of the year but peaking in April. Blackthorn on the cob hedges lights up the byways; sycamore and hawthorn carry the early build; and the slow-growing pittosporum and myrtle in the sub-tropical gardens of the south coast provide unusual supplementary forage. Bramble is dominant through July, bell heather appears on Bodmin Moor and the Penwith commons in August, and the mild autumn leans on ivy and fuchsia hedging well into October.
More on beekeeping in CornwallReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
