Billingshurst is a small market town on the A29 in the western Weald, sitting on the line of Stane Street and surrounded by the sweet-chestnut coppice, hedged pasture and canal-side sallow that characterise this part of the High Weald. The derelict Wey and Arun Junction Canal corridor running through the parish holds willowherb, water-mint and balsam into August, giving local bees a long and varied season.
Local collectors are regularly called to swarms in the tall garden hedges and orchard trees of the Church Way and High Street fringes, in the sweet-chestnut coppice compartments of the lanes towards Adversane and Wisborough Green, along the canal corridor at Newbridge, and in the older tile-hung properties on the main street.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
RH14 0DS· approx. 3 km
Visit websiteRH11 9AU· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteGU5 0LB· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The county is carried by a long, staggered honey flow. Spring opens on the blackthorn and hawthorn of the Downs, followed by field maple and sycamore on the Weald, and the sweet-chestnut coppice still worked around the Arun and Rother valleys. Early summer brings white clover on the grazed chalk, bramble in every hedgerow, and the heavy lime flow that lines the streets of Chichester, Arundel and Horsham. Late summer leans on rosebay willowherb, balsam along the Adur, and a strong ivy flow into October on sheltered south-facing lanes. It is a long season, and hives work hard.
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