Devizes is a market town on the northern chalk escarpment at the edge of the Vale of Pewsey, with Caen Hill locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal below the town and the wide grassland of Salisbury Plain stretching south. The Devizes and District BKA covers the town and the surrounding countryside, and the landscape — chalk downland with its horseshoe vetch and scabious, the canal towpath willows and meadowsweet, the old hedged pasture of the Pewsey Vale and the walled-garden remnants of the market town — makes Devizes one of the best-placed towns in Wiltshire for bees.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old walled gardens and lime trees of the Market Place and St John's conservation area, along the canal towpath willows and hedgerow elms at Caen Hill and Bishops Cannings, on the chalk grassland and scrub margins of the Roundway Down and Morgan's Hill nature reserves, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SN10 2LA· approx. 4 km
Visit websiteSN12 6ES· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteBA13 4AQ· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Early blackthorn and hawthorn along the cowslip-strewn down edges open the year, followed by oilseed rape on the clay vale around Chippenham. Sainfoin is still grown here, and chalk grassland herbs — thyme, marjoram, knapweed, yellow rattle — give a herb-scented character to summer Wiltshire honey that connoisseurs notice. Lime lines Salisbury, Marlborough and Devizes streets; sweet chestnut at Savernake contributes to June. A small but reliable late ivy flow on flint churchyards closes a long chalkland season.
More on beekeeping in WiltshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
