Earls Barton is a large village and civil parish in central Northamptonshire standing on rising ground above the Nene valley between Northampton and Wellingborough, best known for its Anglo-Saxon church tower — widely regarded as one of the finest pre-Conquest stone buildings in England. The tower's ancient ironstone walls and its churchyard limes are a reliable swarm site in good years; the Nene flood-plain willows and white clover meadows below the village provide a sustained summer flow, while the surrounding arable farmland's hawthorn hedgerows and sycamore-lined lanes anchor the spring season.
Collectors in Earls Barton regularly attend swarms in and around the Saxon church tower and its churchyard limes, in the riverside willows and white clover meadows of the Nene valley floodplain below the village, in the mature garden limes and apple trees of the Station Road and High Street conservation properties, and in field-boundary hedgerow oaks on the arable fringe towards Whiston and Ecton.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NN3 7AX· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteMK9 3EP· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteCV21 2JT· approx. 37 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.
