Church Stretton is a small Victorian spa town set in the Long Mynd valley in south Shropshire, surrounded by some of the most dramatic upland scenery in England. The Shropshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the heather and bilberry moorland of the Long Mynd, the limestone grassland and old ash-scrub of Caer Caradoc and Ragleth Hill, the sheltered Carding Mill Valley stream margins and the old orchard country of the Hope Bowdler and Acton Scott fringe — gives local bees access to an exceptional upland and limestone forage calendar.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and hedgerow remnants of the High Street and Burway Road conservation areas, on the heather and bilberry moorland margins of the Long Mynd access land, along the Carding Mill stream and East Onny riverside willows and alders, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian spa and town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY5 8NP· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteSY8 1FD· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteSY16 3PN· approx. 37 km
Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Early sycamore and hawthorn open on the Severn Valley; oilseed rape is common on the North Shropshire plain. Lime at Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Oswestry gives a strong June flow. Bramble is dense; the mosses of Whixall, Fenn and Bettisfield contribute a patchy but distinctive late summer flow of bog rosemary and cross-leaved heath. The Long Mynd, Stiperstones and Clee Hills provide bilberry and late ling heather — still migrated to by Shropshire beekeepers in August. Ivy on the old red-brick farms and timber-framed cottages closes the year.
More on beekeeping in ShropshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
