Shipston-on-Stour is a small wool-trade market town on the River Stour in the far south of Warwickshire, on the limestone edge of the Cotswolds. The Shipston-on-Stour BKA is one of the most active small associations in the county, with collectors experienced in the warm stone buildings and Cotswold-edge countryside. The surrounding landscape — the watermeadow willows and meadowsweet of the upper Stour, the limestone grassland herbs of the Brailes Hill and Cherington fringe, the old orchards and hedgerow field maples of the Ilmington and Tredington lanes, and the Cotswold stone churchyard walls thick with ivy — gives local bees an excellent late season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees and older properties of the High Street and Church Street conservation areas, along the Stour riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Barcheston and Honington, in the old orchard and walled garden remnants of the surrounding estate villages, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Cotswold stone and ironstone town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
OX15 5HZ· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteGL56 0UN· approx. 14 km
CV37 6QW· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Early flows come from blackthorn and cherry in the Arden hedgerows and oilseed rape on the lighter soils around Southam and Shipston. Hawthorn is abundant; sycamore and field maple fill the middle of May. Lime and sweet chestnut in the parkland around Warwick, Kenilworth and Stratford produce a strong June flow. Bramble and rosebay willowherb support July, and a solid ivy flow along the ironstone villages closes a long season.
More on beekeeping in WarwickshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
