Telford is a new town built around the historic iron-making settlements of Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and Dawley in the Severn Gorge of east Shropshire. The Shropshire BKA covers the area, and despite the new-town character, Telford's Town Park — one of the largest urban parks in England — combined with the ancient woodland and riverside habitats of the Ironbridge Gorge, the old orchard country of the Ercall and the meadow margins of the Strine and Humber brooks, gives local bees a surprisingly varied season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale conservation areas, along the Severn Gorge riverside willows and alder carrs at Buildwas and Coalport, in the scrub and old meadow margins of the Telford Town Park, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian industrial and ironmaster properties of the Gorge.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY5 8NP· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteST17 0UP· approx. 30 km
Visit websiteDY9 7PU· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation 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.
