Report - Shipton on Cherwell Cement Works - May '10

[mashedfish]

My third explore but my first one to be posted here. It was a really great place that me and a collegue had to do in to stages as on the first trip we was frightened off but what we thought was a camera but turned out just to be a street light :crazy

a little bit of history on the site:

In the 1920s the Oxford and Shipton Cement Company built a cement works beside the main railway line and began quarrying limestone from the hillside between the Woodstock branch line and Bunker's Hill. The quarry was bought by Alpha Cement in 1934 which became part of Associated Portland Cement in 1938, which became Blue Circle Industries in 1978.[6] Towards the end of the 20th century the quarry ceased production and was sold to the Kilbride Group, which applied unsuccessfully to redevelop it as an eco-town. The quarry is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because it is important for Jurassic fossils, particularly crocodiles.[7] Since quarrying ceased, the site has also become important for wildlife. Birds including turtle dove, little ringed plover, Cetti's warbler and peregrine falcon breed in the quarry. A lake has formed in the bottom of the quarry, attracting birds including green sandpiper, jack snipe, little grebe and common pochard to overwinter there. The site also attracts invertebrates including damselflies.[8]

And an extra bonus was the satellite farm round of the back the place