Stamford is considered one of the finest stone towns in England, set on the Welland at the south Lincolnshire border where the limestone belt meets the Nene valley. The Lincolnshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the limestone grassland of the Barnack and Collyweston stone-quarry country, the Welland riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes of Burghley House and the estate woodland of Wothorpe — gives local bees a classic limestone-belt season of exceptional botanical richness.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees and old walled gardens of the St George's Square and High Street conservation areas, on the limestone grassland and scrub of Barnack Hills and Holes National Nature Reserve, along the Welland riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Stamford Meadows, and in the chimney stacks and limestone eaves of the older town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE9 4HZ· approx. 4 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteNG318JS· approx. 34 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.
