This is rural England: country roads with little bridges, narrow streets, old buildings set within ‘Domesday’ villages and conservation areas. Good agricultural land; so very sensitive to flooding that any change to water flow patterns can be disastrous. In an area of such beauty and rich biodiversity, it is difficult to imagine why anyone would even consider quarrying here, particularly when deposits of sand and gravel are far deeper in other parts of Oxfordshire.

An ancient, virgin landscape with flat topography: there is no hiding place for quarries here.

This area of the Upper Thames Valley between Lechlade and Witney/Standlake is the only section of the Thames Valley between Oxford and Poole Keynes (between Cirencester and Tetbury) that has not been devastated by gravel extraction. This landscape is flat, open, remote and tranquil, qualities that are becoming increasingly scarce in the overcrowded south-eastern region of England.

AGGROW believes that this virgin landscape should be protected, for as long as possible, for its own sake and in order to remind future generations how the whole of the Upper Thames Valley landscape once looked.

The potential devastation caused through gravel excavation needs no further explanation than the following images.

Living with gravel pits

1. On the edge of a quarry



2. Cement batch storage towers



3. Constant sound of pumping machinery




4. A devil's pattern of conveyors