Blaydon is a Tyne-side town made famous by the music-hall song "Blaydon Races" (1862) and once a centre of glass manufacturing, chemical works and the coal trade. It sits on the north bank of the Tyne where the river valley begins to widen towards the Tyne Gap, with the wooded haugh land of the Tyne riverbank giving way uphill to residential streets and the farmland fringe of the Derwent valley. The Tyne watermeadow margins near Blaydon Haugh carry willowherb, meadowsweet, willow and elder; hawthorn hedgerows line the Derwent valley lanes towards Winlaton Mill and Swalwell; and the scrub and rough grassland of the former colliery and industrial land east of the town provide rosebay willowherb and bramble through high summer.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the hawthorn and elder scrub of the Tyne floodplain and Blaydon Haugh riverbank, in the sycamore and horse chestnut of the older residential streets around Shibdon Road and Hexham Road, in the bramble and rosebay willowherb of the former industrial land along the Tyne corridor near Swalwell, and in the chimney pots and eaves of the older stone and Victorian brick terraces of the town centre and surrounding villages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE9 5AX· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteDH1 3SG· approx. 24 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring opens on sycamore and horse chestnut in Jesmond Dene, Leazes Park and Saltwell Park. The lime avenues of the Georgian terraces of Newcastle and the Victorian parks of Sunderland lead the June flow. Bramble and rosebay willowherb are heavy on former pit-head and industrial land. The coastal denes — Marsden, Whitburn, Castle Eden — contribute sea-buckthorn and coastal meadow forage; ivy on old stone streets and garden walls closes the year.
More on beekeeping in Tyne and WearReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
