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Totternhoe Chalk Quarry is a biological
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 ...
in
Totternhoe Totternhoe is a village and civil parish in the Manshead hundred of the county of Bedfordshire, England. Overview Totternhoe is an ancient village in southern Bedfordshire, near Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. Totternhoe Knolls has been a fort ...
in Bedfordshire. Part of it lies in Totternhoe nature reserve, which is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The site is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site is a disused medieval quarry for
Totternhoe stone 250 px, The characteristic checkerboard design of many Bedfordshire churches built with alternating chalk and flint blocks: St Mary's (Luton). Totternhoe Stone is a relatively hard chalk outcropping in the middle of the Lower Chalk in the Chilt ...
, a durable chalk which was used for buildings including Westminster Abbey. The steeply sloping spoil heaps have developed into grasslands which have a wide variety of flowers, including orchids. Grass chalkland is a habitat under threat, and the site has a number of rare plant species, including
great pignut ''Bunium bulbocastanum'' is a plant species in the family Apiaceae. It was once used as a root vegetable in parts of western Europe, and has been called great pignut or earthnut. Growth The plant is native to western Europe. It reaches about ...
. It also has butterflies such as the chalkhill blue and the nationally rare Duke of Burgundy. There is access from a footpath between
Sewell Cutting Sewell Cutting is a nature reserve at Sewell, Bedfordshire, Sewell in Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire. It is owned by Central Bedfordshire Council and managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The site w ...
and Totternhoe and from Totternhoe Knolls, which is also part of Totternhoe nature reserve.


References

{{coord, 51.891883, -0.567876, type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire reserves