Bee swarm in Malmesbury? Help is a minute away.

Malmesbury is a hilltop market town in north Wiltshire on the River Avon, widely claimed to be the oldest borough in England, with an ancient abbey founded in the seventh century and a medieval market cross that remains one of the finest in the country. The town sits on a limestone spur above the confluence of two Avon headwaters, surrounded by the gently undulating pastoral country of the north Wiltshire vale — old hay meadows, hedgerow-rich dairying farmland, riverside willows along the Avon, and the ancient parkland trees of Charlton Park to the east. Hawthorn and blackthorn hedge the old lanes in May; bramble is abundant on the commons and road margins; lime and sycamore dominate the older garden and churchyard planting. The Kennet BKA and local Wiltshire beekeepers cover the town.

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.