Bradley Stoke is a large planned residential town built from the late 1980s on the former agricultural land north of Bristol, its greenway network, the Willow Brook Centre and the managed parkland at Jubilee Park giving bees a productive modern-urban season. The Tyndale greenway along the Almondsbury ridge carries hawthorn and elder scrub; oilseed rape on the Severn Vale farmland immediately north and west of the town opens the season in late April; and the South Gloucestershire Beekeepers' Association is based here at BS32.
Collectors attend swarms in the managed parkland and ornamental shrubbery of Jubilee Park and Savages Wood Road greenway, on the 1990s–2000s residential estate eaves and garden fences throughout the town, in the Tyndale greenway hawthorn and elder scrub toward Almondsbury, and in the garden plots and allotment beds near the northern edge off Baileys Court Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BS32 4PG· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteBS1 4QS· approx. 9 km
Visit websitebs313ep· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the Severn Vale farmland between Thornbury, Oldbury-on-Severn and the M5 corridor gives a strong April to May flow; the flat fields around Olveston and Aust carry it particularly heavily. Hawthorn and blackthorn are dense on the Cotswold edge hedgerows above Wickwar, Rangeworthy and Iron Acton, and the Frome valley farmland east of Yate carries a reliable hawthorn flow in late April. Lime trees line the older streets of Kingswood, Staple Hill and Mangotsfield and carry a June town-centre flow. The Filton Airfield and BAE Systems perimeter scrub carries extensive bramble and rosebay willowherb, and the Frampton Cotterell and Coalpit Heath old colliery reclamation ground is dense with bramble through July and August. Sycamore is abundant along field margins and roadside hedgerows throughout the Cotswold edge; white clover on the improved grasslands of the Severn Vale closes the main flow from June to August. Ivy on the Cotswold limestone walls and the older suburban garden walls closes the year in October.
More on beekeeping in South GloucestershireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
