Redhill is a Victorian railway town immediately east of Reigate, set between the chalk North Downs to the north and the Weald clay vale to the south. The open greensand ridge of Redhill Common and Earlswood Common provide heathland forage in late summer, and the garden suburbs that surround the town centre carry a reliable bramble and lime flow through June and July. The Reigate BKA covers Redhill and its surroundings.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature garden trees and allotments of the Earlswood and South Merstham areas, on the heather and gorse margins of Redhill Common and the Earlswood Lakes, in the hedgerow oaks of the farmland lanes towards Nutfield and Bletchingley, and in the older Victorian chimney stacks and terraces near the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
RH3 7BQ· approx. 5 km
Visit websiteSM7 3QA· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteKT17 2AF· approx. 14 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.
