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Exploring East Yorkshire's Rich Chalk Landscapes

Yorkshire Wolds, Simon Tull

This August, Telling Our Story Volunteer - Simon headed out to highlight three of our less visited nature reserves where geology combines with good habitat management to create some wildlife havens amongst the rich farming countryside of the Yorkshire Wolds.

Once a geologist...

...always a geologist. I retired from my life as a professional geologist last year, yet my interest in the subject remains undimmed. I simply cannot pass a feature in the landscape without looking at and thinking about its geology.  I think this must be why my wife prefers to do the driving when we are out together. 

Fortunately, moving to Yorkshire means that I am living in one of the most geologically diverse parts of the UK. This diversity underlies (quite literally!) the wide range of landscapes and habitats we have in our beautiful county. I thought, then, that I would write about some of the Trust’s nature reserves with the eye of a geologist and try to show how geology can influence wildlife and habitats.  

Where better to begin than with the chalk of East Yorkshire where I now make my home? The chalk is at its most spectacular on the coast, for example at Flamborough. Here, 100 m high cliffs with their layers, fractures, fissures and caves - all developed because of the physical properties of the chalk - combine to create the perfect setting for nesting seabirds.  

Although tempted, instead of Flamborough - I decided instead to visit some of the smaller and less well-visited “chalk-themed” reserves that are tucked away amongst the farming countryside of the Wolds.

Yorkshire Wolds View, Simon Tull

A view of the stunning chalk landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds, photo credit -  Simon Tull

Chalk is essentially an accumulation of the skeletal remains of countless trillions of microscopic algae. It’s soft, porous, soluble and even-grained. This results in rich, well-drained alkaline soils which host ecologically diverse natural grasslands, where there were once warm tropical seas. These are now rare, but three abandoned quarries - Rifle Butts, Kiplingcotes, and Wharram - which have been managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to return to nature such that they form havens of biodiversity in a sea of intensively cultivated farmland.

Visitors to Rifle Butts Quarry have the opportunity to take a step back in geological time - Deep Time, that is, measured in tens and hundreds of million years. The quarry is maintained as an SSSI because of a rock succession spanning the boundary between 180 million-year-old rocks of the Jurassic Period, and 100 million-year-old Cretaceous rocks - by the way did you know that creta is the Latin for chalk. 
 

Rifle Butts quarry face, Simon Tull

Rifle Butts quarry face. The netting is to protect against the rock face. One of the principles of geology is that younger rocks overly older rocks. The flat red bench at the base is Jurassic, with younger overlying Cretaceous rocks forming the quarry face.

Photo credit, Simon Tull

There is a gap - an 'unconformity' - in the rock record between them spanning 80 million years (a period longer than that since dinosaurs became extinct). This gap corresponds to a time when the seas withdrew from the area, and no sediments were preserved. Geologists have great debates about the different geological periods and the boundaries between them. We can infer much about past environments from the appearance, composition, and fossil content of the rocks. It may come as a surprise to know that the gaps are as important as the rocks in unraveling geological history, hence the significance of the quarry. 

Turning from the past to the present, the quarry floor was overgrown with wild marjoram, wild basil, brambles and stinging nettles, which on the morning I visited were host to an abundance of butterflies and bees. There were red admiral butterflies everywhere. I thought back to The Times newspaper article I’d read just that morning on a report by The Butterfly Trust suggesting that the large numbers of migrant butterflies seen this year are just one of the consequences of climate change.

Red admiral & gatekeeper butterflies, and buff-tailed bumblebee - Simon Tull

A red admiral, gatekeeper butterflies, and buff-tailed bumblebee at Rifle Butts Quarry, photo credit - Simon Tull. 

Leaving Rifle Butts, I walked eastwards along the footpath to Kiplingcotes Quarry. The path follows the line of a railway track that was once used to export the chalk from the quarries. The hedges were full of ripening blackberries, hawthorn and apples. Were did the summer go ? Did it ever arrive ? 

It’s 30 minutes on foot to Kiplingcotes, yet the walk took me forward in geological time by some 10 million years into the younger rocks of the upper part of the Cretaceous Period, which you can see in the northern side of the quarry. 
 

Carline Thistle, Simon Tull

Carline thistle. The name derives King Charlemagne; The plant was used to treat his plague-striken army,  photo credit - Simon Tull

We know how old the rocks are by looking at the fossils they contain. Sticking to the base of the scree slope on the north side of the quarry, I scanned for fossils and after a while found traces of shrimps that once churned their way through the seabed (if you ever go fossil hunting, best stick to the weathered rock, leave the fresh rock alone  . This is because the fossils weather out from the rocks and so are easier to find. Oh, and your eyes are often a much better fossil-hunting tool than a hammer). Walking a little further I was pleased to find a group of carline thistles, a plant that is a feature of the site, clinging to the thin soils.

Kiplingcotes Quarry View, Simon Tull

The grass meadows above Kiplingcotes Quarry has an abundance of wildlife, photo credit - Simon Tull

wild pansies, Simon Tull

The grasslands provide the perfect habitat for a large variety of wild flowers, including these wild pansies - photo credit - Simon Tull

A short climb up a path cut into the quarry wall brought me into a grass meadow with a fantastic view of the Wolds. Looking down, I was able to appreciate how the quarry floor is puckered by anthills, built by generations of yellow meadow ants. The anthills have a different soil structure and composition to the surrounding areas and are an important plant microhabitat. 

There seemed to be a lot of variation in the plants colonising them. In places wild thyme dominated.  At the western end of the quarry, where the grasses are longer, they sprouted harebells and ladies bedstraw, with clumps of wild pansies and common eyebright growing in between.  

marbled white butterfly

A marbled white butterfly clings to a thistle in the cool August breeze, photo credit - Simon Tull

As the day grew warmer - the sun even put in a brief appearance - more bees and butterflies started to appear. There were marbled whites, for which Kiplingcotes is renowned, small coppers - a particular favourite of mine, and many more.  

Over 20  species of butterfly have been identified in recent surveys of the site conducted by Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire.  

Red-tailed Bumblebee and Common Carder Bee on Greater Knapweed, Simon Tull

A red-tailed bumblebee and common carder bee on Greater knapweed, photo credit -  Simon Tull

Greater Knapweed and Field Scabious were being worked over by bees, sometimes with two or more jostling for space on the same flowerhead.

Everywhere I looked there was was something to catch the senses. All of this and, as is so often the case in this part of the world, not another soul in sight.    

A view of Wharram Quarry, Simon Tull

A view of Wharram Quarry, photo credit - Simon Tull

My third stop was at Wharram Quarry, just off the Wolds Way and a stone’s throw from Wharram Percy deserted medieval village. There isn’t a great deal of geology to see at Wharram. The old quarry face has been grown over by vegetation and is set back behind a fence designed to keep Hebridean sheep from straying too far when they are put on to the reserve in winter.  

When I was here at the beginning of the summer, the quarry was carpeted with common spotted and pyramidal orchids, and the air was filled with the hum and thrum of bees and hoverflies.  Returning in early August, the place was quieter, more autumnal.  The orchids were gone, but I was able to find some of the wooly thistles, a plant that thrives in chalk soils which the quarry is perfect for.

Wooly Thistle, a speciality of Wharram Quarry, Simon Tull

wooly thistle, a speciality of Wharram Quarry, photo credit - Simon Tull

Swallows collected in small groups on telephone wires, and along the lane leading to the quarry where there were ripening rose hips. The insects were less active, the wind was surprisingly chill.

Some rather faded and weather-worn butterflies clung to the thistles and grasses as they caught the breeze, getting whipped around like a boat’s pennant.  

Meadow Brown Butterfly, Simon Tull

Meadow brown butterfly, photo credit -  Simon Tull

Unlike at the other sites, there are obvious signs of the past at Wharram. You can glimpse some of the derelict quarry buildings, largely lost amongst the trees and bushes as you approach the reserve. The poet Edward Thomas found great virtue in old chalk quarries which he saw as places of quiet and solitude, with nature taking over from industry…..

….once a chalk-pit: now it is 
By accident an amphitheatre. 
Some ash trees standing ankle-deep in briar
And bramble act the parts, and neither speak
Nor stir.' 'But see: they have fallen, everyone,
And briar and bramble have grown over them.'
'That is the place. As usual no one is here…….

Edward Thomas - The Chalk Pit, 1915

….Well, these are my sort of place. And it’s true - there’s no-one here ….. but you’re welcome to visit. Please do.

If you've been inspired by Simon to visit the chalk reserves of Rifle Butts, Kiplingcotes, and Wharram Quarry to enjoy the last of the summer wildflowers and butterflies then visit our nature reserve guide here to start planning your visit. 

Small Copper Butterfly on Wild Marjoram, Simon Tull

Small copper butterfly on wild marjoram, photo credit - Simon Tull

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