Gainsborough is a river-port town on the Trent in west Lincolnshire, the "St Ogg's" of George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, set between the Isle of Axholme carrs to the west and the Lincolnshire Wolds to the east. The Lincolnshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Trent riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland of Gainsborough Old Hall, the arable farmland and dyke-side flora of the Trent vale and the mixed farmland of the Wolds fringe — gives local bees a productive riverside and vale season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and Pingle conservation areas, along the Trent riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Morton and Heapham Road, in the old parkland remnants of Gainsborough Old Hall and Hemswell, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
LN1 2DS· approx. 14 km
DN20 0JR· approx. 24 km
Visit websiteDN3 3AG· approx. 24 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the defining early Lincolnshire flow, enormous in scale across the Fens and Wolds. Field beans, hawthorn and blackthorn carry the hedgerows. Lime and sweet chestnut line the Georgian streets of Lincoln, Stamford and Boston. Bramble is universal, and rosebay willowherb flushes disused airfields and dismantled rail corridors. The Lincolnshire Wolds, though not high, carry sainfoin and chalk grassland herbs. Coastal buckthorn at Gibraltar Point and ivy in the Wolds villages finish a long year.
More on beekeeping in LincolnshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
