St Helens is a former glass-making and coal-mining town between Liverpool and Manchester, set on the Sankey and Rainford brooks with the Lancashire coalfield reclamation grasslands surrounding it and the Mersey valley to the south. The Merseyside BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the old colliery reclamation grasslands and reed-bed margins of the Sankey Valley Country Park, the Sankey Brook riverside willows, the mixed farmland and old orchard country of the Billinge and Rainford fringe and the canal towpath flora of the Sankey Canal — gives local bees a productive mixed industrial and rural season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Church Street and Victoria Square conservation areas, along the Sankey Brook riverside willows and reed-bed margins at Sankey Valley Country Park, in the old orchard and garden remnants of the Billinge and Rainford lanes, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian glass-town and mining properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
WA11 8RG· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteL25 7TE· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteWA6 7QN· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Sefton Coast sand dunes contribute an unusual assortment of forage — sea holly, restharrow, viper's bugloss, wild thyme — feeding urban bees along the coast. Horse chestnut and sycamore in Sefton Park, Calderstones and Birkenhead Park give the early flow; the lime avenues of south Liverpool and Wallasey carry the main June flow. Bramble blankets the Mersey Forest plantings; rosebay willowherb flushes Everton and Kirkby brownfield. A late coastal sea-buckthorn crop at Formby and Crosby is a known supplementary flow before the ivy closes the year.
More on beekeeping in MerseysideReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
