Guildford is the county town of Surrey, set in the Wey gap where the chalk North Downs meet the greensand ridge, with Shalford Meadows, the Wey Navigation towpath and the steep chalk hanger of St Catherine's Hill all within a mile of the castle. The Guildford BKA has one of the longest active histories of any Surrey division and covers the full range of the town's habitat — from the lime-lined avenues of the Onslow Village to the scrubby North Downs scarp above Pewley Down.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature garden trees of Merrow and the Onslow estate, in the old chalk-cut boundary walls of the town centre conservation area, on the scrub margins of Pewley Down and St Catherine's Hill, along the willow and alder of the Wey Navigation corridor, and in the chimney stacks of the Victorian terraces of Stoke and Woodbridge Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
GU5 0LB· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteGU10 2DL· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteKT15 2QJ· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring builds fast on blackthorn, hawthorn and horse chestnut along the North Downs scarp, then leans heavily on field maple, sycamore and the urban lime avenues of Guildford, Dorking and Woking. The lowland heaths — Chobham, Frensham, Thursley — give a late bell heather crop in good Augusts that colonies here can count on, supplemented by rosebay willowherb across the MoD training land. Bramble is dense from Box Hill to the Surrey Hills AONB, and the old walled churchyards carry a strong ivy flow into autumn.
More on beekeeping in SurreyReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
