Bee swarm in Leintwardine? Help is a minute away.

Leintwardine is a historic village at the confluence of the Rivers Teme and Clun in the far north of Herefordshire, occupying the site of the Roman fort of Bravonium on the road from Wroxeter to Caerleon. Herefordshire Beekeepers North Herefordshire branch serves the village and the Teme valley. The river meadows carry willow, marsh marigold and meadowsweet through spring and early summer; the ancient hedgebanks of the Shropshire border country are rich in hawthorn, sloe, crab apple and elder; the mixed woodland of Downton Gorge nature reserve adds lime and rowan; and the unimproved grass verges of Watling Street and the old enclosures of the Clun valley provide clover and knapweed into late summer. The river-valley ivy on old churchyard stone and farm buildings closes a long, quiet season.

The season opens on tens of thousands of tonnes of orchard blossom — cider apple, culinary apple and traditional perry pear — across the Leominster and Hereford belt. Hawthorn on deep double-hedges follows; hop gardens provide a quieter supplementary forage. Lime and sweet chestnut dot the market towns. The Black Mountain foothills add bilberry, heather and gorse to hives on the county edge, and bramble is dense throughout. A long, strong ivy flow on red-sandstone churches and orchard windbreaks carries the year out.