Haslemere is a small market town in the Surrey Hills AONB at the southern edge of the county, surrounded by the sandstone heathland, oak woodland and ghyll country of the Hindhead Commons and the Devil's Punch Bowl. The National Trust heathland nearby carries ling and bell heather into August; the ghyll woodlands hold sallow, bramble and sweet chestnut; and the town's old cottage gardens and orchard remnants add lime and sycamore to the flow.
Local collectors are regularly called to swarms on the heather and gorse margins of Hindhead Common and Gibbet Hill, in the deep-cut ghyll woodland gardens of the town's residential fringe, in the old boundary walls and chimney stacks of the High Street and West Street conservation area, and in the garden trees of the outlying hamlets of Grayswood and Shottermill.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
GU10 2DL· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteGU5 0LB· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteRH14 0DS· approx. 16 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.
