The Cotswold escarpment at Crickley Hill exposes a geological story written in layers of Jurassic oolitic limestone. These rocks formed around 180 million years ago on the floor of a warm, shallow sea teeming with tiny organisms whose calcium carbonate shells compacted into the honey-coloured stone that defines the region. The escarpment itself is the result of millions of years of erosion eating eastward into the limestone plateau, leaving a dramatic west-facing cliff. Just south of Crickley, at Leckhampton Hill, stands the Devil's Chimney — an isolated rock pillar left behind by 18th and 19th century quarrying. The quarrymen cut away the surrounding stone for building material, inadvertently creating a landmark that became a Victorian tourist attraction. The pillar has been reinforced with concrete several times to prevent its collapse. From the Crickley Hill viewpoint, walkers look west across the Severn Vale to the Forest of Dean and the Welsh mountains — a panorama that spans 300 million years of geological time, from the ancient rocks of Wales to the young clays of the vale below.
“Just south of Crickley, at Leckhampton Hill, stands the Devil's Chimney — an isolated rock pillar left behind by 18th and 19th century quarrying.”
