Whickham is a large town in the Gateshead borough on the high ridge south of the Tyne valley, with a history rooted in coal mining and a settled residential character that has spread down the valley sides towards the Derwent Walk country park. Newcastle & Tyneside BKA covers the town and the Derwent corridor. The Derwent Walk linear park — the former Consett to Swalwell railway line — is one of the best urban forage corridors in the north east, carrying hawthorn, blackthorn and crab apple through spring, meadowsweet and bramble in summer, and sloe into autumn; the gardens and lime-lined roads of the older Whickham village centre deliver a good June sycamore and lime flow; and the open grassland and rough scrub of Watergate Forest park above Dunston supplements the season with clover and willowherb.
Collectors attend swarms in the tall sycamores and lime trees of the old village centre around Whickham Front Street and the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in the hawthorn and elder scrub margins of the Derwent Walk country park, in the garden trees and roof voids of the suburban streets of Sunniside and High Spen, and in the old hedgerow oaks and bramble banks of the Watergate Forest parkland.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE9 5AX· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteDH1 3SG· 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.
