Chilterns Chalk
The chalk under our feet determines so much of what grows in the downland where you could find over 80 species of wild bees, Roman snails, brimstones and chiffchaffs.
This week we are underground continuing our A - Z Chilterns Treasures journey to answer the question: what have the Chiltern Hills ever given us? A sore behind for starters - I left some of my dignity behind on the very slippery Coombe Hill path today after all the rain.
I recall having to bang together the chalk dusters, after wiping away blackboard equations, formulas, vocabulary or historical texts, leaving me coughing and spluttering outside the classroom enveloped in a cloud of chalk dust.
What have the Chiltern Hills ever given us?
Located in the space between the London and Oxford, amongst busy towns, suburban Metroland, chocolate-box villages, winding lanes through classic English rolling hills and valleys, there is surprising solitude and space to breathe.
The chalk under our feet determines so much of what grows above in the downland where you could find over 80 species of wild bees, Roman snails, brimstones and chiffchaffs.
Deep memories of the teeny-tiny creatures that once inhabited the warm topical seas that covered southern Britain 150 million years ago. Along with algae called coccoliths, their shells compacted on the sea bed forming the chalk seam that links southern England with France. Best appreciated at College Lake, a repurposed chalk quarry now a flourishing and busy nature reserve, with cake.
A vision to turn a derelict quarry into a peaceful space (to breath) And Wine! An increasing number of vineyards are producing bubbly, whites and rosé wines to accompany your locally sourced cheese platter.
Rising from the aquifer beneath us are the unique and magical chalk streams whose water is pure and at a constant temperature. Now, pollution and over-extraction means they are under threat, the Chess Valley a particular example with a watercress industry decimated in spite of efforts to keep it going. Just look at that pure water gushing straight into the ‘cress beds at Sarratt in 2017.
The taste of this fiery crop was something else! Ancient ant hill colonies on Bacombe Hill are constantly at war competing for resources and the hope their neighbours will be the next woodpecker snack!
Pegsdon Hills and Hoo Bit is an important site for the rare pasque flower amidst wildflower meadows, with orchids, Chiltern Gentians, bastard toadflax (love that name), chalkhill blues, thickets of beeches and dramatic Chilterns views.
Love in the woods Great views and big skies in spite of only being 267m above sea level, a mere bump on the landscape... a break in the trees to reveal a church spire or the Hambleden Valley is always a treat.
The red kites get a mixed reception as they will dive-bomb from great heights to snatch your cheese and pickle sandwich, right out of your hand. A common sight as they lazily circle overhead, their flourishing numbers testament to their successful re-introduction in 1990 of 13 young Spanish red kites to the Chilterns.
There are a number of hillside chalk marks including the lion at Whipsnade, the mysterious Bledlow Cross - so mysterious only a few have seen it, the 18th century vanity project above Watlington, but best of all is the Whiteleaf Cross above Princes Risborough whose age and purpose is unknown. I like it that way!
This is very short list, there are lots more that the Chiltern Hills have given me, what would you include on list?
The next letter is D…Dahl, Dashwood, Disraeli are the obvious choices …but what about the Dissenters, Doom paintings or dish of the day?
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Links you will need
What links the Jurassic Coast in Dorset with the Wash in Norfolk? The new very old Great Chalk Way is a re-creation of what is thought to be England's oldest coast-to-coast route that links Lyme Regis on Dorset's Jurassic Coast to the Wash in Norfolk. The route takes you approximately 400 miles through eleven beautiful English counties including; Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk following established long distance paths and two popular National Trails. Traversing a chalk ridge, each component path retains its identity and waymarks, but common to all routes are the hillforts and barrows and the permanent living landscape features.
We have begun our A - Z journey in two contrasting places: a busy market town and on a hill in the beech woodlands.
A is for Aylesbury
Let’s start our A - Z journey with a busy town that has kept its historic heart well and truly hidden. Maybe because this historic heart is marooned in an island surrounded by noisy, busy through-roads full of traffic whizzing on their way to somewhere else.
B is for Buddhists in the Beechwoods
Let’s continue our A - Z Chilterns Treasures journey into the valley of nettles between the hamlets of Nettleden and Great Gaddesden in the Hertfordshire Chilterns. There you will find the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, an unassuming site along a country road that has been a place of worship and study for over 400 years.
The Chilterns have been part of my whole life. They are lovely. From the Downs to looking at Whipsnade Lion. Sat having lunch just down from the Thiodweg, the ancient salt route from the Chilterns and into Aylesbury Vale. Not forgetting the place of the Treaty of Yttingaford in 906!
You do live in a spectacular and most interesting neck of the woods, Mary!