The underlying rock is Magnesian Limestone and this has had a strong influence in determining the range of plant and animal communities now found there.

The SSSI boundaries were revised in 1982 to exclude areas which were no longer found to have high wildlife interest due to tipping and quarry reworking.

Magnesian limestone grassland supports an assemblage of calcicolous plants adapted to growing in thin soils with a short sward.

The quarry holds one of the largest British populations of the dark red helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens; a survey in 2010 found nearly 1700 flowering spikes of this nationally rare species.

[2] The site attracted the interest of birdwatchers in 2002 when a pair of European bee-eaters took up residence, raising two young, only the third breeding attempt ever in Britain.