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Barton-upon-Humber is a historic market town on the Lincolnshire bank of the Humber, directly south of the Humber Bridge and with a clear view of Hull across the estuary. The town has a wealth of medieval and Georgian architecture — St Mary's and St Peter's churches, the latter a Saxon tower of national importance — and its setting on the estuary gives local apiaries access to an unusual forage range: saltmarsh and estuarine wildflowers on the Humber bank, chalk grassland wildflowers on the Wolds fringe to the south, and productive arable oilseed rape on the clay land between.

Oilseed rape covers vast areas of the clay farmland between Scunthorpe, Brigg and Kirton in Lindsey, delivering a strong April flow that fills supers quickly on well-established colonies. White clover follows through June and July on the river meadows along the Trent and Ancholme corridors. The Isle of Axholme carries alder and willow carr along its drainage dykes — both valuable for early pollen — and bramble is prolific on the earthen embankments of Vermuyden's drainage channels through July. Hawthorn is dense in the hedgerow network on the Wolds escarpment above Kirton in Lindsey and Brigg. Willowherb colonises railway cuttings and roadside verges across Scunthorpe through August. Sycamore and lime shade the older streets of Brigg and Barton-upon-Humber, while ivy on the Humber-facing walls and churchyards in Barton closes the season in October.