Hetton-le-Hole is a former coal-mining village in the Sunderland borough with an early and distinguished place in railway history — the Hetton Colliery Railway of 1822, engineered partly by George Stephenson, was one of the first to use steam traction. The Hetton Lyons Country Park now occupies the reclaimed colliery site, with wildflower meadows, woodland belts and a range of species-rich habitats giving local honey bees access to a productive mix of white clover, bramble, willowherb and meadow wildflowers that would have seemed improbable when the pit headgear stood here.
Collectors attend swarms in the Hetton Lyons Country Park wildflower meadows and woodland margins, on the hawthorn and elder of the old colliery boundary hedgerows at Hetton Downs and Lyons, in the garden trees and boundary sycamores of the older village streets around Newgate Street and Hetton Road, and in the stone field walls and hedgerows on the farmland fringe at Eppleton.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DH1 3SG· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteNE9 5AX· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteDL5 4BA· approx. 23 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.
