Top 8 Natural Monuments around Long Crendon

Boasting magnificent views over the Vale of Aylesbury, Chinnor Hill is a patchwork of calcareous wildflower grassland, scrub and woodland. A network of bridleways including stretches of the ancient Ridgeway National Trail offer many miles of outstanding riding.

The wood contains about forty species of butterflies making it one of the most important habitats in Britain.

This is one of the quarries here, a part of the former Chinnor Chalk Pit, now flooded and known as Old Kiln Lakes. The lakes are freshwater, but very alkaline, and there was a warning to the public issued in 2012 to not swim in there. It's a striking and moon-like place, looking very dramatic and slightly out-of-this-world. A definite must!

This quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and well known by geologists for its phenomenal history. Packed with fossils, some of the finds here date back 100 million years. There's no public access, but you can catch glimpses of its bright high-alkaline water from the surrounding footpaths.

Stokenchurch Gap. The cutting is mainly through the Upper Chalk, with some Middle Chalk seen at its base. The cutting is a Site of Special Scientific Interest of geological importance. It provides the best Coniacian section in central England. The curved route of the cutting was designed to mitigate impact on the skyline, and to fit the local topography.[citation needed] The construction of this section of the M40 (junctions 5–8) was at the time extremely controversial, since the cutting through the Chiltern Hills was driven through the middle of the ecologically-important Aston Rowant NNR. Conservation groups were appalled at the unexpected decision of the inspector at the public inquiry to reject their claims that the national nature reserve designation implied a fully protected landscape which should in no circumstances be damaged. Their alternative proposals for a tunnelled solution, or a route on-line with the existing A40, were rejected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokenchurch_Gap

Magnificent views from the "throne".

The M40 motorway passes through the reserve, where a cutting, the Stokenchurch Gap, drops the motorway down onto the Oxfordshire plain between Junction 5 Stokenchurch and junction 6 Watlington. This section of the "Midlands Link" motorway opened in 1974 after a Public Enquiry. The event helped to motivate conservation groups to oppose infrastructure projects that would damage protected natural habitats, such as the M3 cutting through Twyford Down near Winchester, which could have been protected by tunnelling. http://www.newsmedianews.com/m3.shtml

Chinnor, Chalk and Cement Mr. W. Benton's Cement and Lime Works opened in Chinnor in 1908, but cement making on a truly industrial scale did not begin until 1919. Output of cement from Chinnor peaked at about 5600 tonnes per week in the 1990s. Up to 120 people were employed at any one time. The cement works closed in 1999 and there are plans for the re-development of the site, using the flat areas for housing but also with opportunities for recreation and conservation in the water filled quarries The scale of chalk extraction for cement making can be seen from a short walk along the Ridgeway National Trail. The Ridgeway runs on a high causeway between the large quarries, giving views of the pits through the boundary fences. (Do not cross over or through the fences). Geology One of the chalk quarries has been protected as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest as it has particularly good exposures of both the Lower Chalk and Middle Chalk geological layers. Both layers have given upimportant fossil ammonites.