Cirencester is the principal market town of the Cotswolds, built on the Roman Corinium and surrounded by the limestone plateau farmland of the southern Cotswolds. The Cirencester & District BKA covers the town and a wide rural hinterland. The open limestone grassland of Barnsley Warren and the old orchard gardens of the surrounding villages carry a classic Cotswold flow — blackthorn, field maple, sainfoin and white clover in succession — and the mature parkland of Cirencester Park adds lime and sweet chestnut.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the parkland limes and boundary walls of Cirencester Park, in the old orchard and kitchen garden remnants of the Chesterton Lane and Watermoor conservation areas, in the dry-stone field boundary hedges of the villages towards Bibury and Coln St Aldwyns, and in the chimney stacks and Cotswold-stone roof voids of the town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
GL7 5PU· approx. 5 km
Visit websiteGL68GA· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteSN25 4TG· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Cotswolds give early blackthorn and hawthorn on drystone hedges, with limestone grassland herbs later. The Severn Vale brings oilseed rape, horse chestnut and hawthorn in the valley pastures. The Forest of Dean is the country flavour — sweet-chestnut coppice, holly, bilberry and a late heather patch on the upper heaths. Bramble is universal; lime and sycamore dominate the June streets of Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud. A reliable autumn ivy flow on stone-walled churches carries hives into October.
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