West Sussex honey runs from the chalk of the South Downs to woodland and town gardens. Sussex Bee Farm, with around 200 production hives across Sussex, jars each apiary's honey separately and describes flavours drawn from chalkland wildflowers, farmers' fields and ancient woodland – from clover to horse chestnut and late-summer bramble. At the other end of the scale, Crawley's beekeepers harvest from woods, parks and gardens inside the town.
Beekeeping in the county is organised through the West Sussex Beekeepers' Association and its four divisions – Central Sussex, Chichester, Wisborough Green and Worthing. The Worthing division holds an annual honey show alongside the Findon Sheep Fair, and members also take part in the Bees and Honey section of the South of England Show at Ardingly.
Most honey here is bought direct. Sussex Bee Farm sells at farmers' markets in Steyning, Shoreham and Arundel; South Downs Honey in Lancing labels its honey by apiary; The Elmer Honey Co. near Bognor Regis and The Sussex Beekeeper in Shoreham-by-Sea sell online; and Malthouse Apiary in Crawley sells from its door. Near Horsham, EZ-Bees sells its Hawkesbourne honey from a roadside honesty box on the way to Rusper; AnonA Honey, near Chichester, sells spring and summer honey for collection at Batchmere; and the Payne family, beekeepers since 1922, now trade as R & R Bee Company from Haywards Heath.
The Weald in the north is sweet chestnut country — coppiced for centuries, flowering in July, and giving the dark, strongly flavoured honey that Sussex shares with Kent and Surrey. The Downs themselves carry chalk grassland flora: clover, bird's-foot trefoil, marjoram and scabious on the unimproved slopes, with the National Park's grazing regime keeping much of it intact. Below the scarp, the coastal plain around Chichester and Worthing is some of the most intensively horticultural land in England, and the mild, sunny climate there gives one of the earliest starts to the beekeeping year anywhere in Britain. Gorse on the greensand and heather on the few remaining heaths fill in at the edges.
Light and floral from the Downs; dark and tannic where chestnut dominates. Coastal apiaries produce an unusually early spring honey.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Chichester, Horsham, Worthing, Crawley, Bognor Regis, Midhurst, Littlehampton, Petworth
Chalk grassland. The unimproved slopes of the Downs carry clover, bird's-foot trefoil, marjoram and scabious rather than a single farmed crop, so the honey is a light, complex wildflower blend rather than a monofloral. It is a summer crop, usually jarred from August.
On the coastal plain, yes — it is one of the mildest and sunniest parts of Britain, and colonies there are often flying and building weeks ahead of apiaries twenty miles north in the Weald. It means an earlier spring honey, though not necessarily a bigger annual crop.
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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