Corby is a new town built on the ironstone plateau of north-east Northamptonshire, with a Scottish industrial heritage and the ancient oak woodland of Rockingham Forest surrounding it on three sides. The Northamptonshire BKA covers the town, and despite the new-town character, the surrounding landscape — the ancient oak and ash woodland of Rockingham Forest, the Welland riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the limestone grassland of the ironstone ridge and the old parkland of Kirby Hall and Rockingham Castle — gives local bees access to some of the finest ancient-woodland forage in the East Midlands.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Rockingham Road and George Street conservation areas, in the ancient oak and hazel coppice margins of Rockingham Forest, along the Welland riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Weldon and Deene, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older ironstone and steel-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NN3 7AX· approx. 24 km
Visit websitePE9 4HZ· approx. 27 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The county opens on a mix of oilseed rape and field beans across the arable belt between Kettering and Daventry. Hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple line the ironstone walls and quickset hedges. The estate woodlands — Rockingham, Salcey, Whittlewood — produce a sweet-chestnut and lime flow in June, particularly in the older planting blocks. Bramble is dense along the Nene Valley; rosebay willowherb flushes the disused quarry and railway land; and ivy in ironstone villages gives a generous late crop.
More on beekeeping in NorthamptonshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
