Charlbury is a small Cotswold market town on the River Evenlode at the edge of the ancient Wychwood Forest, one of the best-preserved old-growth woodland remnants in Oxfordshire. The Oxfordshire BKA covers the area. The Wychwood oak and hazel woodland provides oak pollen and an early sallow flow; the surrounding limestone plateau farmland carries hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple in the old hedges; the Evenlode water-meadows add clover and meadowsweet; and the mature mixed woodland of the Cornbury Park estate contributes a fine late-summer lime and sycamore flow. Charlbury's market gardens and orchard remnants add a village-scale supplement.
Local collectors respond to swarms in the garden trees and old Cotswold-stone walls of the Church Street and Market Street area, along the Evenlode riverside willows and alders between Charlbury and Stonesfield, in the Wychwood oak-wood rides near Shorthampton and Walcot, in the parkland lime and sycamore of Cornbury Park, and in the chimney stacks of the older Cotswold-stone properties of Charlbury and the surrounding villages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
OX20 1LP· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteGL56 0UN· approx. 13 km
OX15 5HZ· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring opens on blackthorn, hawthorn and cherry plum along the stone hedges of the Cotswolds fringe and the chalk lynchets of the Vale. Oilseed rape is locally significant in Cherwell and South Oxfordshire. Beech in the Chilterns contributes to a huge honeydew-flavoured June flow some years, while lime avenues fill central Oxford and the larger market towns. Bramble, rosebay willowherb and field bean carry July; ivy along the Thames valley walls and the old college gardens closes the year.
More on beekeeping in OxfordshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
