Loughborough is a university town on the Soar in north Leicestershire, between Leicester and Nottingham, with Charnwood Forest and the granite-outcrop heathland of Beacon Hill immediately to the west. The Loughborough and District BKA covers the area, and the surrounding landscape — the ancient oak-and-heather of Charnwood Forest, the Soar riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes of the university grounds and the mixed farmland of the Wolds fringe — gives local bees a varied lowland and upland season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and Baxter Gate conservation areas, on the ancient oak and heather margins of Charnwood Forest above Woodhouse Eaves, along the Soar riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Quorn and Barrow-upon-Soar, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian town-centre and university-quarter properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DE13 0BN· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteCV11 5DN· approx. 33 km
Visit websiteNG15 9GA· approx. 35 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape and field beans drive the arable flow. Sycamore and horse chestnut in the market towns build the mid-May crop; lime dominates June in Leicester, Loughborough and Market Harborough. Charnwood brings sweet chestnut, bracken and patches of bilberry; Bradgate and Belvoir parks add ancient lime and oak. Bramble is universal; rosebay willowherb fills ex-quarry ground around Mountsorrel. Ivy on the red-brick farmhouses and old pub gardens closes the season strongly.
More on beekeeping in LeicestershireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
