Blue Bell Hill and Culand Pits

Blue Bell Hill picnic site is a stunning viewpoint that looks out across the Medway valley and to the Weald, when you stand here you are standing on relatively younger rocks and looking out over older rocks stretching back to over 100 million years old.  

The Medway valley that you can see from here has been hugely important to the cement industry since around 1850, and many of the villages and towns in this area developed because of the industry.

As you look out from Blue Bell Hill, in the foreground you can see some large excavated areas, these are the Culand Pits. The Culand Pits are great examples of sites connected to the cement industry, once upon a time clay was extracted for bricks and this was followed by chalk for the cement industry. The pits are now recognised for their geological significance as part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), in particular due to the marine and reptile fossils that have been found here. 

Managed by Kent Wildlife Trust, this site also includes Burham Down, which is home to special chalk grassland species. This Geosite encapsulates much of what is important in the Cross-Channel Geopark, as it is a great place to understand how the landscape evolved and was formed over millions of years, and how humans have interacted with this geodiversity. Nowadays we can see how these former industrial sites can be important for protecting and restoring biodiversity thanks in part to the unique geology that can be found here.