Geology Site Account

Site name: Arkesden Chalk Pit

Grid reference: TL 4914 3368

Brief description of site:

Fine disused quarry in the Upper Chalk, cut into the hillside and visible from the road. On private land. Access only available with the permission of the landowner. Formerly called the Parish Chalk Pit. The pit is a Local Wildlife Site.

Chalk is a special type of limestone formed on the floor of a tropical sea about 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The Chalk Sea is thought to have covered most of northern Europe, the purity of the chalk being evidence that coastlines were then far away and sea level was very high. At this time the European continent had not yet separated from North America. Fossils of creatures that lived in the Chalk Sea have been found in the Chalk here but they are rare and difficult to spot.

The chalk is soft, white and blocky. There are widely-spaced courses of nodular flint and layers and oblique veins of tabular flint. Flint is an extremely hard, black form of quartz that originates from the skeletons of sponges that were dissolved by sea water and precipitated as mostly horizontal layers.

Arkesden Chalk Pit as viewed from the road. Photo: G.Lucy