Chilterns Chalk: Celebrating the special landscape of the Chilterns National Landscape

From January to April 2024 the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs scheme is celebrating the special chalk bedrock of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural beauty (AONB) with a festival of events: Chilterns Chalk. There are all kinds of things planned, from wildlife talks to practical habitat management, river-dipping to geology walks, all ending with a big celebration of everything chalky at the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Heritage Railway.

Chilterns Chalk kicks off on Thursday 25 January 2024 in Princes Risborough, where the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Connections project team will share their experiences of working with a passionate group of farmers to restore chalk grassland in the Central Chilterns. All served with some delicious local nibbles!

The characteristic chalk and flint of the Chilterns formed around 100 million years ago under a warm, tropical sea as the remains of millions of microscopic algae fell to the seabed. The same movements of the Earth’s crust that formed the Alps caused this thick bed of chalk to buckle and emerge from the retreating sea, exposing it to the elements and eventually creating the landscape we see today – one rich in wildlife and history.

For many millennia, people have used and celebrated the chalk here. From Stone Age flint tools to modern cement, grassy slopes to clear streams, the chalk bedrock has provided the means for shelter, food, agriculture, industry, and art. Chilterns Chalk celebrates this connection to our landscape, both ancient and modern.