Oxfordshire can claim the start of one of Britain's best-known honey brands: Tony Rowse kept bees at his home in Ewelme and set up Rowse Honey there in 1938, before the company moved to nearby Wallingford. Ewelme still has its own small producer, Starling Apiary, selling jars from the door.
The county's own honey comes from very different country. Honeys of Henley has apiaries across the Chilterns and Thames Valley, and a code on each jar tells you which site it came from. Meadow Honey Farm at North Moreton runs about 300 hives from the meadows beside the Thames to the Berkshire Downs, selling soft-set, summer blossom and borage honeys and, when the season allows, a heather blend. In the north of the county, near Banbury, Honeymakers, which started out as The Honeybee Suppliers, keeps over 1,000 colonies for its Cotswold honey range.
Several producers sell mainly through village shops, delis and farm shops rather than online – Brightwell Bees, for example, sells only through stockists around Wallingford. The Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association, which has supported the county's beekeepers for more than a century, holds an annual honey show.
Use the listing details to choose how to buy, then contact the producer before travelling.
The directory does not track live stock or harvest dates. Availability, collection, delivery, prices and seasonal varieties can change, so ask the producer to confirm what is currently available.
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