Southwell is a small minster town in the Nottinghamshire Trent vale, dominated by its Norman cathedral-scale collegiate minster and surrounded by the mixed farmland and parkland of the Southwell and Newark belt. The Nottinghamshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the minster lime trees and old walled gardens of the Archbishop's Palace grounds, the parkland and orchard remnants of Brackenhurst and the surrounding estate farmland, the Trent riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Fiskerton, and the bramble-rich hedges of the Greet valley — gives local bees a classic English river-vale season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees and old walled gardens of the Minster Close and King Street conservation areas, along the Trent and Greet riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Fiskerton and Upton, in the parkland and orchard remnants of the Brackenhurst estate and the Archbishop's Palace grounds, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Georgian minster-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NG15 9GA· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteNG318JS· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteDE55 7LX· approx. 32 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.
