Sutton in Ashfield is one of the largest market towns in north Nottinghamshire, set in the former Ashfield coalfield between Kirkby in Ashfield and Mansfield on the Derbyshire–Nottinghamshire border. The post-industrial landscape is greening rapidly: former colliery sites and spoil heaps are converting to woodland, wildflower grassland and managed scrub, while Sutton Lawn park, the Brierley Forest parkland to the north and the hawthorn-hedged farmland of the Skegby and Huthwaite fringe carry a productive mixed flow from spring sycamore and hawthorn through summer bramble to late-season ivy on old stone boundary walls.
Collectors in Sutton in Ashfield regularly attend swarms in the older garden limes and privet hedges of the Market Place and High Street conservation areas, in the rosebay willowherb and bramble margins of former colliery spoil heaps on the Skegby and Huthwaite fringe, in the park trees and boundary hedges of Sutton Lawn, and in chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian mining-town and market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NG15 9GA· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteDE55 7LX· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteS41 8NA· approx. 19 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.
