Longbenton is a northern Newcastle suburb in North Tyneside, known for Benton Quarry Park — a former limestone quarry converted into a local nature reserve with calcareous grassland, scrub and a small lake. The suburb's interwar and post-war housing estates are well-planted with mature sycamore, lime and rowan, and the Farm Lane nature reserve on the northern edge preserves a strip of hedgerow and meadow within the urban fabric; the Tyne and Wear Metro gives residents ready access to both city and coast.
Collectors attend swarms in the calcareous grassland scrub and hawthorn margins of Benton Quarry Park and the Farm Lane nature reserve, in the mature lime and sycamore of the inter-war residential avenues around Kings Road and Station Road, on the eaves and chimney pots of the older Longbenton terraces and semi-detached streets, and in the garden trees of the Northumberland Park and Killingworth estates on the northern fringe.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE12 8EH· approx. 1 km
Visit websiteNE9 5AX· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteDH1 3SG· approx. 28 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.
