Ripley is a market town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, between the Amber valley and the former colliery and ironworks belt of Codnor and Somercotes. The Derbyshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the oak and birch woodland of Crich Chase and the Amber valley slopes, the Amber riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Ambergate and Crich, the rosebay willowherb on the ex-colliery and railway land of the Midland Railway Trust at Swanwick, and the hedged farmland and bramble of the east Derbyshire plateau — gives local bees a varied colliery-belt and valley season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and Grosvenor Road conservation areas, in the oak and birch woodland of Crich Chase and the Amber valley sides, along the Amber riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Ambergate and Ridgeway, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian market-town and colliery properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DE55 7LX· approx. 5 km
Visit websiteNG15 9GA· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteS41 8NA· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring opens on blackthorn and hawthorn in the dales, with sycamore and field maple on the valley slopes. Oilseed rape is common in south Derbyshire. The signature flow is high-moorland ling and bell heather across Bleaklow, Kinder Scout, Stanage and Big Moor — thick, amber-cast, and still commercially migrated to. The White Peak adds limestone grassland herbs — wild thyme, knapweed, marjoram — and bilberry grows on the moorland margins. Rosebay willowherb flushes every disused quarry, and ivy closes the year on stone-walled farms.
More on beekeeping in DerbyshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
