Witney is a Cotswolds-edge market town on the River Windrush, its old blanket-mill buildings and the wide Buttercross green enclosed by the walled gardens and hedged meadows of the Thames and Windrush valleys. The arable and pasture of the upper Windrush plain carry oilseed rape and white clover across April and May, the lime trees of the town centre and the Cogges Heritage Farm orchards add a classic June flow, and the river meadows towards Standlake and Ducklington carry willowherb and meadowsweet through midsummer.
Witney collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime and sycamore trees of the Buttercross area and Church Green, in the garden hedgerows of Cogges and Leys, along the Windrush riverside at Crawley and Minster Lovell, in the chimney pots of the older Cotswold-stone properties near the town centre, and in barn and stable eaves on the farm margins towards Brize Norton.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
OX20 1LP· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteOX14 1QY· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteGL56 0UN· approx. 21 km
Association 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.
