Shepshed is a Charnwood market town between Loughborough and Coalville — an old framework-knitting settlement at the edge of the Charnwood Forest, where ancient granite and slate outcrops, heathland remnants and the maturing oak and birch of Charnwood Forest parks meet the mixed farmland of the Soar valley. Its compact town centre has a traditional Friday market and strong hedgerow forage on every approach.
Swarms cluster in the mature garden sycamore and horse chestnut of the older Victorian streets, on the hedgerows of the Charnwood Forest lanes leading to Whittle Hill and Barrow Hill, and in the bramble and bracken scrub of the forest-edge nature reserves. The Charley Road and Loughborough Road approaches carry persistent swarm activity in June.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DE13 0BN· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteCV11 5DN· approx. 30 km
Visit websiteNG15 9GA· approx. 36 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.
