Blackburn is a former cotton-weaving town on the Darwen in central Lancashire, between the Pennine moors to the east and the Ribble valley farmland to the west. The East Lancashire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the heather and bilberry moorland of the West Pennine Moors above Darwen Tower, the Darwen and Blakewater riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes of Corporation Park and the mixed farmland of the Ribble fringe — gives local bees access to real upland forage alongside the lowland agricultural season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Cathedral and King William Street conservation areas, on the heather and bilberry moorland margins of the West Pennine Moors above Darwen, along the Darwen riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Corporation Park, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian cotton-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PR1 8AP· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteBB113RQ· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteM25 2SW· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring opens on sycamore and hawthorn in the Ribble Valley hedges; oilseed rape is present but secondary. Lime fills June in Preston, Lancaster, Blackburn and Burnley. The Forest of Bowland and the Pennine fringe produce bell and ling heather from late July to early September — a classic Lancashire heather flow, thick and commercially migrated to. Bramble is dense; rosebay willowherb flushes Blackburn and Burnley former-mill brownfield. Ivy on stone-built villages and coastal bungalows closes the year.
More on beekeeping in LancashireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
