Geology Site Account

Site name: The Dipping (Church Hollow)

Grid reference: TQ 551784

Brief description of site:

Former chalk quarry on the south-west slope of Beacon Hill, 300 metres north of the River Thames. It has a fine vertical chalk face on its northern boundary. Much of the quarry floor is occupied by residential development.

The quarry was also called Tank Lane Quarry. Church Hollow is the name of the western part of the site originally occupied by a chapel, school and schoolmaster's house built by the Whitbread family (owners of the quarries) for its estate workers.

These are the earliest chalk quarries in Thurrock, chalk was quarried here from as early as the 16th century.