Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits

Standing within East Pit, you are surrounded by steep cliffs of bare white chalk with patches of grassland and dense scrub. The cherry trees in adjacent Lime Kiln Close are descendants of the trees that gave Cherry Hinton its name; now large ash trees also tower over field maples.

Wildflowers such as milkwort, harebell and kidney vetch thrive in East Pit, and rare moon carrot grows only here and at two other locations in the country. The scrub habitat in these pits provides nesting and feeding sites for more than 60 species of bird. On summer nights, glow-worms glimmer fluorescent in the grass.

To help restore its value for nature, we reprofiled the base of the pit in 2009 to break up much of the solid chalk surface. This has enabled wildflowers and grasses to spread and colonise the exposed chalk.
 

In 2009 an archaeological excavation was carried out at East Pit. You can download the Final War Ditches Report (pdf) on the excavation or read it here.

Watch here as Wildlife Trust volunteer Jade Lauren Cawthray takes a winter walk through the chalk pits.

This nature reserve is part of the Cambridgeshire Chalk Living Landscape

Find out more about local geology and the Cambridgeshire Geological Society here.

The map below is for indication purposes only and does not show the Wildlife Trust's definitive land boundary.