Become a LGS 'Site Champion'

We are looking for "Site Champions" who would be willing to check on the condition of a Local Geological Site. This would involve a six-monthly visit with a short report on the site's condition. For more details see the LGS Champions page.

 

LGS 

There are now 27 Local Geological Sites designated in Berkshire.
All sites are located on the Google map on this page. Clicking on a number on the Google map will show a little more detail about a site.

 

Conservation Work   

Some of the sites need additional interpretation and others need regular maintenance - contact us if you can assist with this.

What are Local Geological Sites?

Local Geological Sites (LGS) are sites within the county that are considered worthy of protection for their Earth Science or landscape importance, but are not already protected as SSSIs. The network of Berkshire LGS, forms part of the nationwide network, and incorporates sites of educational, research, historical, or aesthetically importance. The network includes sites of importance to both professional and amateur geologists, as well as those sites amenable to and of interest to the general public. Sites selected for inclusion within Berkshire LGS will vary in the level that they are suitable for and this will be evident in the description. Some sites selected are suitable for enhancement work and will be or are already open public access, but this is not appropriate or practical for all sites selected as LGS.

Why do we want to conserve geological sites?

Conservation of Earth science sites, be they rock outcrops, natural landscape or historical sites, is important for several reasons:

  • To preserve our geological record for the future
  • To train future geologists and geographers
  • To provide an essential teaching ground for schools and universities
  • To provide material for future research
  • To provide sites for a rapidly developing leisure industry
  • To preserve geological sites which also have historical, archaeological, cultural or wildlife value back to top

Site selection

Sites are selected as satisfying one or more of the following criteria:

  1. Research importance (potential for professional researchers or for Earth scientists in industry).
  2. Educational importance: schools, colleges, universities, societies, etc.
  3. Aesthetic importance (relating to raising public awareness in geology, geomorphology or conservation).
  4. Historical importance (where an important concept or work of note was carried out or inspired).

Berkshire Local Geological Sites

There are 27 designated sites in Berkshire (listed below and shown on the map). The map also shows the geological SSSIs in Berkshire.
Geodiversity Management plans have been produced for a few of these sites and can be seen in the plans section of the publications page.



1 Barkham Iron Rich Streams 2 Chapel Farm Sarsens
3 Old Kiln Quarry, Chieveley 4 Cookham Dean Chalk Pit
5 Hurley Chalk Pit 6 Longwater Road Gravel Pit
7 Goring Gap Viewpoint, Lough Down 8 Lynch Wood Springs
9 Quarry Wood, Bisham 10 Radley Bottom
11 Remenham Church Lane Quarry 12 Owl Pit, Rushall Farm
13 Snelsmore Common 14 The Coombes
15 The Honeys, Shurlock Row 16 Thomas Lawrence Brickworks, Bracknell
17 Warfield Church 18 Wargrave Chalk Pit
19 West Woodhay Quarry 20 Winter Hill Viewpoint
21 Cocksherd Wood 22 Englefield Chalk Pit
23 Hogmoor Field 24 Quick's Green Chalk Pit
25 Devil's Highway 26 Hurley Swallow Hole
27 Bungum Lane 28 Inkpen Beacon
29 Swinley Brick Pits

For more details see the Berkshire Local Geodiversity Action Plan (Note sites 21-27 were designated after the publication of the LGAP.)

Contact us if you would like more information.