Aston Rowant Cutting is a geological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

south of Aston Rowant in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. Aston Rowant Cutting, also known as the Stokenchurch Gap or Aston Hill cutting, or locally "The Canyon" is a steep chalk cutting, constructed through the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

on the border between

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

and

, England during the early 1970s for the

M40 motorway The M40 motorway links London, Oxford and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately . The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry slip-r ...

. It is long and a maximum of deep, and is located approximately from High Wycombe and close to the village of

Stokenchurch Stokenchurch is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about south of Chinnor in Oxfordshire and west of High Wycombe. Stokenchurch is a commuter village, served by junction 5 of ...

. Despite the names, the cutting is in the parish of Lewknor rather than Aston Rowant or

. The cutting (along with the nearby village of

) is subject to frequent heavy fog during the winter months.

Cutting

The cutting provides the best exposure in central England dating to the

Coniacian The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series and spans the time between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Coniacian is preceded by t ...

stage of the Late Cretaceous, approximately 88 million years ago. It is part of the

Upper Chalk The Chalk Group (often just called the Chalk) is the lithostratigraphic unit (a certain number of rock strata) which contains the Upper Cretaceous limestone succession in southern and eastern England. The same or similar rock sequences occur acr ...

succession, and at its base there is a fossil rich section which is important in defining the boundary between the Coniacian and the preceding Turonian stage. Red kites are commonly seen flying within the cutting or on the surrounding downland, making their return after their persecution by game keepers in Victorian times following a successful reintroduction programme organised by the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

and Natural England, which selected the Aston Rowant NNR as one of four initial sites in the UK for a captive release programme using birds brought in from Spain. The scheme has been so successful that the population has grown to over 200 pairs and is now self-generating and supplies birds for similar release programmes elsewhere in the UK. The cutting features prominently in the opening titles to the BBC comedy series '' The Vicar of Dibley''.

References

External links

Further construction information of M40 Jct 5-8A

Live traffic camera showing northbound approach to the cutting with Christmas Common overbridge
{{SSSIs Oxfordshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire Geological Conservation Review sites Landforms of Oxfordshire Hills of Oxfordshire Transport in Oxfordshire Road cuttings in the United Kingdom Chiltern Hills