Winterbourne is a village and civil parish on the Frome valley between Frampton Cotterell and the northern fringes of Bristol, its medieval church of St Michael the Archangel, a water mill site and a scatter of older stone houses giving it a distinct village identity despite considerable postwar residential growth. The Frome valley floor meadows to the south carry hawthorn-lined hedgerows; oilseed rape fields on the plateau above Frampton Cotterell are in flower by April; and the churchyard limes and garden sycamores carry the June town-centre flow.
Collectors attend swarms at the lime and sycamore trees in St Michael's churchyard, on the garden walls and eaves of the older stone properties along Church Road and High Street, in the bramble and elder scrub along the Frome valley cycle path, at the allotments near Flaxpits Lane, and in the hawthorn hedgerows of the farmland at Winterbourne Down and Hambrook.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BS32 4PG· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteBS1 4QS· approx. 11 km
Visit websitebs313ep· approx. 13 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.
