Houghton-le-Spring is a historic market town in the Sunderland borough on the Coal Measures limestone plateau south of the city, birthplace of Bernard Gilpin the sixteenth-century "Apostle of the North". The town stands above the Hetton Lyons and Houghton Dene country parks, where former colliery land has been reclaimed as wildflower meadow and woodland; the limestone scarps above Penshaw and the Penshaw Monument hill carry hawthorn scrub and give local colonies a productive late-spring blossom flow in an otherwise agricultural landscape.
Collectors attend swarms in the wildflower meadows and scrub margins of Hetton Lyons Country Park, on the hawthorn and elder of the Houghton Dene and Rainton Meadows nature reserve boundaries, in the mature garden trees and stone walls of the older Houghton village streets around the Market Place, and on the limestone escarpment hawthorn above Penshaw and the Wear valley.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DH1 3SG· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteNE9 5AX· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 21 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.
