Earl Shilton is a small market town in west Leicestershire between Hinckley and Leicester, historically part of the Leicestershire hosiery and framework-knitting industry and today a mixed working-town and commuter settlement on the farmland fringe running towards Kirkby Mallory and the Fosse Way. The hawthorn-hedged ridge-and-furrow pasture of the Elmesthorpe and Stoney Stanton fringe, the orchard remnants in the older village gardens, the field maples and elder of the surrounding arable margins and the garden limes of the conservation-area streets give local bees a characterful small-town season with the familiar Leicestershire rhythm of spring hawthorn through summer clover to ivy in October.
Collectors in Earl Shilton regularly attend swarms in the older garden fruit trees and hawthorn hedgerows of the Wood Street and High Street conservation area, in the ridge-and-furrow pasture boundary hedges on the farmland fringe towards Elmesthorpe and Stoney Stanton, in elder and bramble scrub on old boundary banks and railway margins, and in chimney pots of the older Victorian terrace and boot-trade properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CV11 5DN· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteCV21 2JT· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteCV3 4AQ· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape and field beans drive the arable flow. Sycamore and horse chestnut in the market towns build the mid-May crop; lime dominates June in Leicester, Loughborough and Market Harborough. Charnwood brings sweet chestnut, bracken and patches of bilberry; Bradgate and Belvoir parks add ancient lime and oak. Bramble is universal; rosebay willowherb fills ex-quarry ground around Mountsorrel. Ivy on the red-brick farmhouses and old pub gardens closes the season strongly.
More on beekeeping in LeicestershireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
