When an open day was staged at the old Rock Edge quarry in Headington, about 400 Oxford people turned up to find out how volunteers maintain the site on their doorstep.

Home owners in the vicinity of the quarry were leafleted in advance and responded in their hundreds.

“Most of the residents who came along did not know anything about the quarry that was one of the quarries in Headington that were excavated to build the earliest of the colleges in the university,” said Denise Dane, of the Oxfordshire Geology Trust (OGT).

The success of the day demonstrated the value of a three-year project designed to improve public access to and knowledge of quarries in Oxfordshire.

Visitors on that open day were able to learn about the history and heritage of the quarry and how volunteers conserve the site.

During the project, the aim was to target six quarries a year with an open day being held once a year.

The next open day will be at Kirtlington Quarry on Sunday, October 3, when OGT members will be working with local wildlife and conservation groups.

Kirtlington Quarry is famous for the fossilised mammals found in its strata and it was excavated for limestone to make cement.

Finance for the three-year project came from several sources, principally a £33,300 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable the OGT to involve community groups in the county in the geo-conservation work.

Members of OGT had earlier identified and assessed the regionally important geological sites (RIGS) across Oxfordshire in need of their attention and manpower.

The project partners — all voluntary groups — work at sites appropriate to their needs. Partners are North Oxfordshire Day Services, Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and the green gyms of Abingdon, Bicester and Wallingford and the green gym for Chipping Norton and Woodstock that goes by the name of Woodchipp. Employees of Co-op stores in the county have also helped out as well as the young V volunteers of the Wychwood Project.

Michelle Davies, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East England, said: “It is important that geologically significant sites should remain accessible and safe in order to permit their future study. This project will not only achieve this but will also engage local people in the task.”

Denise Dane said that there were 45 local geological and landscape sites in Oxfordshire and some were protected as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs).

Quarries ranged in age from those 500 to 600 years old to those being currently excavated for building stone and aggregates.

Two of the oldest were in Headington — Rock Edge and Magdalen quarries, that were worked to provide limestone for the early colleges, including Magdalen College.

Later colleges were built of higher quality stone, often from the Chipping Norton area such as the Taynton quarries.

“Stone is the vernacular building material of much of Oxfordshire, though in the south chalk and flint was used,” added Denise.

Quarries are not the only important geological sites in the county as some of the 45 sites are railway cuttings where rock or stone strata has been exposed.

However, some of the cuttings are inaccessible as railway lines are in use.