Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits
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These old chalk pits have been reclaimed by nature, providing a haven for rare plants |
These three quarries once provided hard chalk to build Cambridge University colleges and lime for cement. Today they support a variety of habitats that harbour some of the counties rare plants and insects.
Lime Kiln Close was abandoned approximately 200 years ago. Where woodland has developed, large ash trees tower over field maples below. The cherry trees in Lime Kiln Close are descendants of trees that gave Cherry Hinton its name.
In the warm, dry chalky soil of West Pit, two plants of great rarity grow. Moon carrot produces large heads of white flowers similar to cow parsley. Great pignut is similar but more delicate with a large underground tuber. You can still see the old limekilns in amongst the young woodland.
East Pit was quarried up until the early 1980’s and is the largest of these three pits. Cut in to the hillside, steep cliffs surround the exposed chalk area. Scrub provides nesting and feeding sites for the more than 60 species of bird that have been recorded on the reserve.
The establishing grassland supports bird’s-foot-trefoil and common milkwort amongst other plant species. In less exposed places, rare mosses and liverworts are taking advantage of the bare chalk. East Pit is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in recognition of the species present which have fascinated botanists for many years.
A large circular ditch monument known as War Ditches once sat upon the top of Lime Kiln Hill. The ditch, which had a diameter of 150m, was dug in about 500BC during the Iron Age and was finally filled in by the Romans during the 1st-2nd century AD. The derivation of the name War Ditches is uncertain but may be co-incidental with the discovery of numerous human skeletons whilst quarrying during the latter half of the 19th century. Chalk extraction in East Pit removed a large part of the War Ditches but the location of the monument is now marked by a ring of chalk boulders in the far end of the reserve.
Birds: Long-tailed tit |
Plants: Wild thyme, common milkwort, common bird’s-foot-trefoil, yellow-wort, salad burnet Insects : Speckled wood butterfly |
Plants: Moon carrot, great pignut, wild basil, harebell, fairy flax Insects: Glow worm, 6-spot burnet moth Birds: Kestrel |
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