Higham Ferrers is a medieval market town on the north bank of the River Nene, best known as the birthplace of Archbishop Henry Chichele and for the Bede House and Chichele College that he endowed in the early fifteenth century. The low-lying Nene water meadows immediately to the south — broad flood-plain pasture with willows, willowherb and meadowsweet — sustain a long summer flow, while the hawthorn-hedged farmland rising north towards Raunds and Stanwick and the churchyard limes of St Mary the Virgin provide the spring anchor of the season.
Collectors in Higham Ferrers regularly attend swarms in the churchyard limes and walled gardens of the Chichele College and Market Square conservation area, in the riverside willows and watermeadow margins of the Nene valley south of the town, in the older garden limes of the College Street and Vine Hill residential areas, and in chimney stacks of the Nene Valley ironstone-terrace properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NN3 7AX· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteMK9 3EP· approx. 31 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 36 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.
