Greetham is a compact ironstone village in central Rutland, sitting on a gentle ridge between Oakham and the market town of Stamford. The village is flanked to the south by the Greetham Valley, a sheltered fold carrying willow and alder carr alongside a small stream before opening onto the limestone grasslands above Stretton. The combination of hedgerow hawthorn along the Cottesmore Road, white clover on the improved pasture, and late-summer bramble on the valley slopes gives colonies here a well-stocked season.
Collectors are called to swarms around St Mary's Church and the old rectory garden, in the stone wall cavities and roof voids of the seventeenth-century farm buildings on Main Street, along the hawthorn-banked Greetham Valley path heading south, and in the willow and elder lining the stream at the valley bottom.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE9 4HZ· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteNG318JS· approx. 26 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens on blackthorn and hawthorn along the ancient limestone hedgerows, followed by sycamore and oilseed rape across the arable fields east of Oakham and Ketton. Lime flowers well in both market towns in June; white clover and field margins carry colonies through July. The reservoir shore at Rutland Water supports willowherb and wild angelica into late summer, and field maple, bramble and ivy on the churchyard walls close the year through October and November.
More on beekeeping in RutlandReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
