Chinnor Cement works

Chinnor Cement works is located in the Chilterns Oxfordshire, covering approx 200 acres of land.

The site was founded in 1908 when a Lime manufacturing business was set up operating 5 beehive Lime kilns (of which one still remains), and in 1936 expanded to producing cement when the company was acquired by ‘Rugby Portland Cement’.

As production output reached a peek in 1990, the factory was exporting 5600 tonnes of cement per week.

The cement dust particles are still heavily dispersed in the air making some areas uncomfortable to breathe in, however once you have reached the silo gantries away from the contamination, magnificent views await of the remaining water filled quarries, an ode to the scale applied to chalk extraction.

The cement works closed in 1999 and has recently been used as a film set for British sitcom ‘The Bill’ and as a setting backdrop for a James Bond movie.

Unfortunately in December 2004 a young man’s body was discovered after having ‘fallen through a roof’ onto a 60 foot ledge in the works, it is unclear however whether this was a suicide or an accident but several reports I have read seem to suggest the latter.