Hucknall is a former colliery and hosiery town north of Nottingham in the Leen valley, known as the burial place of Lord Byron and bounded by Bestwood Country Park to the east and the Annesley Woodhouse colliery nature reserve to the north. The Nottinghamshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the oak-and-birch woodland and rosebay willowherb on the Bestwood colliery spoil and country park, the Leen riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland and lime avenues of Newstead Abbey, and the bramble-dense railway cutting hedgerows — gives local bees a productive colliery-and-woodland edge season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the High Street and Byron Street conservation areas, in the oak woodland and rosebay willowherb rides of Bestwood Country Park and the Annesley Woodhouse spoil tip, along the Leen riverside willows and watermeadow margins towards Bulwell, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian hosiery-town and mining properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NG15 9GA· approx. 5 km
Visit websiteDE55 7LX· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteS41 8NA· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape dominates the spring flow on the light sandy soils between Newark and Retford. Sycamore and horse chestnut carry May; lime lights the streets of Nottingham, West Bridgford, Mansfield and Worksop. Sherwood Forest gives a strong sweet-chestnut and oak-honeydew contribution in June. Rosebay willowherb is exceptionally heavy on the ex-colliery spoil heaps — a genuinely distinctive Nottinghamshire flow — and bramble fills every disused rail corridor. Ivy on old cottage walls closes a productive year.
More on beekeeping in NottinghamshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
