.Little Heath Previous Activity.

This page has a description of our activity from 2017 up until the current report.

2025

It was Saturday the 15th February that 10 of us got together to do the work at Little Heath. We were lucky with cloudy weather for the morning on site, it turned to rain once we were safely in the pub for lunch!

Our objective as ever was to clear the vegetation on the site which has developed over the past year. This year we also needed to do preparation work for a planned refurbishment of the exposure in March, using an excavator.

The preparation work included: clearing the vegetation to create a ‘driveway’ for the excavator to enter the pit; removing bushes, small trees and the information board to enable the excavator access to parts of the exposure; and removing some vegetation on the exposure to facilitate directing the excavator activity.

We were again delighted to have support in the work from the National Trust. This year Emily, the Countryside Manager, joined us armed with the hedge trimmer for the vegetation and tools to remove the bushes and small trees.

The most intensive work was the removal of the information board which had been very securely fixed to the ground. It took a team effort to remove – see photo below. The plan is create a new information board as part of the refurbishment.

A great result from the morning’s activity, thanks to the hard work by all involved.

Three images of the 2025 Working Party, site at the start of the morning; work in progress removing the old Information Board; 11 members of the Working Party at the end of the day

March 5th & 6th Refurbishment

Thanks to an agreement with Natural England and Ashridge National Trust, funds were made available to get an excavator on site to refresh the exposure and perform other site improvements.

We had ideal sunny weather for both days. The excavator did a great job on the left hand side of the exposure to bring it back into the way it looked in 2012. The excavator also created a set of steps to allow access to all levels and therefore to protect the exposure itself.

Two images of the 2025 refurbishment, digger working on the left hand face; digger creating the access steps

The excavator went on to reprofile the entrance slope into the Pit which will provide safer access. Finally it removed the vegetation from the base of the pit, and removed the talus to reinstate the bottom face of the exposure.

Two more images of the 2025 Refurbishment; the entrance way reprofiled; the digger stripping vegetation from the base of the pit.

Unfortunately parts of the base of the pit proved to be unstable so we could not use the excavator on the main face. On the second day a manual clean of that face was achieved.

Final two 2025 Refurbishment images, manual clean of the the main exposure face; the final result.

A real success, so the site is looking its best for anyone who visits.

2024

This year we chose the 17th February for the Working Party, and again were fortunate with the weather. The previous week had been showery so forming some puddles, but we were blessed with another cloudy-bright day for our work.

A key focus this year was the Couch Grass which had not only spread further on the exposure but also across the bottom of the pit. Great work was done in both areas with the aim of removing a large portion of the roots. It will be back next year but hopefully at a reduced level.

Last year we pulled up a huge number of saplings, up to a foot high, across the whole site. That good work meant that we found very few to remove this year.

We were delighted that Joe, a Ranger from the Ashridge National Trust Management Team, was able to join us. He brought with him a hedge trimmer so was able to clear the vegetation from the righthand side of the pit very efficiently.

It allowed the us to focus more time on other areas, the entrance slope to the pit, the bottom of the pit, and at the top of the exposure. The later included removing the moss which was adding to the water erosion in the faces.

So a great result thanks to everyone’s hard work.

Two images of the 2024 Working Party, site at the start of the morning; site at the end of the day

Two images of the 2024 Working Party, member of Ashridge National Trust operating hedge trimmer to clear vegetation; 8 members of the Working Party at the end of the day

Heavy rain fell over the next two weeks. So, when three of us returned (in the rain) to do some more work, there was very sticky clay and a pond in the pit!

Our focus was to clean some of the key parts of the exposure ahead of a visit by Harrow & Hillingdon Geological Society planned for May. We also were able to clear large amounts of sand which had accumulated onto the exposure steps.

Another good morning’s work by the participants, who then had more work to do to clean tools and clothes!!

Three images of a second visit in 2024, the 2025 Working Party, two volunteers working in wet conditions showing pond in the pit; result of the second visit; one of the volunteers showing how muddy all three volunteers had become by the end.

2023

The Working Party was arranged this year on 18th February and managed to find cloudy-bright weather so ideal for a busy morning. We found that the good work done last year meant that our starting point was much improved. However the Couch Grass invading the main face is a problem which we tackled as best we could.

The main face is also getting a covering of moss and has started to slump in places. We have decided to do minimal work on the face, to protect the outcrop. If we were to clean the face each year the outcrop would be soon worn away. This way it will still be available for further research in the future.

The team again did a great job on clearing the vegetation on the site, and even managed to get to all the vegetation at the other end of the site from the face – a first!

Two images of the 2023 Working Party, site before and after the work

Two images of the 2023 Working Party, the line up of the nine volunteers; a view of showing the vegetation was cleared from the whole Pit.

2022

On 27th February a working party got back to Little Heath to clear the site after 24 months growth of vegetation. We were blessed with good weather, having moved the date from the previous weekend due to storm weather warnings!

John Catt was responsible for opening the exposure in 2012, and while he is no longer with us in person, it was lovely to have his spade to help with the work.