Cherry Hinton Pit

Cherry Hinton Pit
Type Nature reserve
Location Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, England
Coordinates 52°10′48″N 0°10′08″E / 52.180°N 0.169°E / 52.180; 0.169Coordinates: 52°10′48″N 0°10′08″E / 52.180°N 0.169°E / 52.180; 0.169 (grid reference TL4855)
Operated by Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
Habitats
  • Chalk grassland
  • Woodland

Cherry Hinton Pit is a disused chalk quarry, currently a Site of Special Scientific Interest[1] situated to the south of Cherry Hinton in the county of Cambridgeshire.

The quarry was active until the early 1980s; it provided hard chalk to build Cambridge University colleges, and lime for cement.

Currently the site is managed as a nature reserve by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough. The Trust's sites are known as Limekiln Close, West Pit and East Pit.[2] In 2009, East Pit was opened to the public. Archaeologists have discovered human bones, Roman[3] and Iron Age pottery fragments, and the remains of an Iron Age ditch on the site.[4] The ditch had a diameter of 150m, was dug in about 500BC, and was finally filled in by the Romans during the 1st-2nd century AD.

References

  1. ↑ Natural England: Cherry Hinton Pit. Retrieved 20 June 2009
  2. ↑ Wildlife Trust: Cherry Hinton - Limekiln Close and West pit. Retrieved 20 June 2009
  3. ↑ Mayor to open new Cambridge reserve. Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough. 16 June 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009
  4. ↑ Artefacts found at nature reserve. BBC News. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009

External links


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