Chinnor – The Wainhill Chalk Pits

The ridge below you is riddled with holes, small, medium, and large pits that look like craters. They were dug out of many years by local people in search of chalk, which is one of the fundamental characteristics of the Chiltern Hills.

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Chalk is a soft white limestone made up of incredibly tiny calcareous shells – these are the remains of plankton that lived in massive abundance in the warm tropical seas that flowed over what is now Britain between 95 and 65 million years ago, during a period geologists call the Upper Cretaceous.

Chalk has been used by people for many reasons – some of them rather surprising, such as adding to foods for bulk and for whitening in toothpaste The sort of chalk in this part of the Chilterns is not very suitable for building, but chalk ‘clunch’ can be seen in some older buildings, and a special type of chalk in the northern parts of the Chilterns, called ‘Totternhoe Rag’, was even quarried to build parts of Windsor Castle! These pits were likely dug for wither spreading chalk on fields to increase their nutrients (a process called marling) or for other industry, such as adding to clay for making bricks.

It’s hard to date some chalk pits, but some in Buckinghamshire may go back to the Late Iron Age (300BC-AD43). These at Wainhill are more likely 18th-19th century. Just 750 metres to the northeast, there are more and larger pits and quarrying at a place called The Warren. Workers in the early 20th century found Saxon (7th-10th century AD) burials there, with weapons.

Heritage Trails

This is one of four ‘Routes to the Past’ circular walks, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. You can find the other trails on the main Chilterns Interactive Map, under routes.

Each trail has four waymarkers with unique stories to tell – Find the other Chinnor Hill trail markers and scan their stories at the locations shown here.

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Chilterns Heritage and Archaeology Partnership

CHAP is an exciting new endeavour which is set to be the ‘voice for archaeology’ in the Chilterns.
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Plan your trip to the Chilterns!

Search the interactive map: select from a list of categories to bring up icons showing the location and information of walks, bike rides, places to visit, tasty local products and plenty more across the Chilterns area