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<< Our Photo Pages >> Uffington White Horse - Hill Figure or Geoglyph in England in Oxfordshire

Submitted by vicky on Tuesday, 18 February 2020  Page Views: 43733

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Uffington White Horse
Country: England County: Oxfordshire Type: Hill Figure or Geoglyph
Nearest Town: Swindon  Nearest Village: Uffington
Map Ref: SU30128662  Landranger Map Number: 174
Latitude: 51.577644N  Longitude: 1.566742W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 5 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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custer NickE070812 whese001 Marcia would like to visit

Hordernm visited on 1st May 2023 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3

vanoflife visited on 12th Oct 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 Another visit to one of my favourite sites

aolson visited on 24th Jun 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 We just caught oblique glimpses of it from the road below. Once at the horse itself, it is surprising just how small the cuts in the turf are. I was expecting them to be measured in yards, but instead you could measure them in feet, or inches in some places. I'm sure there are better places to view it, but it was great to see the way it was made up close.

Harmudge visited on 4th Jun 2017 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4

Jansold visited on 24th Oct 2016 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 4

Chrononaut1962 visited on 12th Sep 2016 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 3

ModernExplorers visited on 19th Dec 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Surrounded by some really nice countryside and some interestingly shaped hills

SolarMegalith visited on 26th Feb 2011 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 4

TheWhiteRider visited on 22nd Jun 2010 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4

woodini254 visited on 27th Sep 2009 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5

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Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.33 Ambience: 4.21 Access: 3.76

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by SteveC : Unable to be seen in it's entirety from the ground, this is an image taken from a drone. (Vote or comment on this photo)
This beautiful hill carving, lying close to Uffington Hillfort in Oxfordshire is best viewed from a distance but can be accessed by walking uphill from the signposted carpark. The horse is 110m long and carved through the grass into chalk and has been dated to between 1400 and 600BC. (but see comments below for recent dating update)

The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylized prehistoric hill figure situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill. The figure has been shown to date to the Bronze Age, by means of optically stimulated luminescence dating carried out following archaeological investigations in 1994. These studies produced three dates ranging between 1400 and 600 BC.

Iron Age coins that bear a representation comparable to the Uffington White Horse have been found, supporting the early dating of this artifact; counter suggestions that the figure was fashioned in the Anglo-Saxon period now seem untenable. Uffington is by far the oldest of the white horse figures in Britain, and is of an entirely different design from the others.

It has long been debated whether the chalk figure was intended to represent a horse or some other animal. The site is owned and managed by the National Trust. Last time we visited, a handy guide book to the monuments in the area could be purchased at the carpark.

Part based on material from Wikipedia

See below for an Uffington comic illustration by Dr H who blogs at https://prehistories.wordpress.com/ and has an Etsy (art) shop which features Tales from the Rock Face comics and badges https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Prehistories

Note: Exclusive: New, much earlier, date for the Uffington White Horse made public, which pushes it back to (possibly) the Early Bronze Age, 2020 - 1330 BC
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Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by rgoodenough : Aerial photo of the White Horse - a better angle than on the ground! (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by croppy : The Uffington White Horse (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by rgoodenough : Aerial photo of White Horse Hill - it's hard to fly and photograph at the same time! (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

The Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse submitted by baz : The old resident of Uffington..... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by SolarMegalith : The Uffington White Horse, the only known genuinely prehistoric chalk figure in England - view from the west (photo taken on February 2011).

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Thorgrim : "A small thing, but my own - my very own" Pebble painting is fun - my very own Uffington White Horse! Now what am I bid for your own, your very own Cerne Abbas Giant? (2 comments)

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by SolarMegalith : Uffington White Horse - head of this 110 m long hill figure in the foreground. Unfortunately, it's difficult to fully capture the figure from the ground (photo taken on February 2011).

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by rldixon : The standard white horse and dragon hill photo as seen a few times on here taken 14-5-2004

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by croppy : The Uffington White Horse

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Uffington White Horse. Closeup showing gravelly chalk used in the consruction.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by hamish : The Dragon keeping an eye on Dragon Hill. (2 comments)

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by JimChampion : December 2004. An view from above the White Horse, looking down its hind leg towards the rippling Manger valley.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by SteveC : A pano of the White Horse, Hill Fort and The Manger taken with a drone.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Postman : White Horse and Dragon hill

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Postman : There's a fence keeping us away from the chalk lines now, it's flimsy and easily crossed but I didn't want to set a trend.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Postman : Oss

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by DocRock : The Uffington White Horse near the eye in the morning mists of 1991 with a human for scale comparison.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by croppy : The Uffington White Horse

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Pitmatic : Low level aerial view of the Uffington White Horse. This shows how the mid December sunlight hardly touches the figure at midday. Image © 2006 Mark Fearon

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Nick- : Taken in 1991- bit of a gloomy photo......

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Hordernm : Looking north from above the head.

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by cactus_chris : 20030000--Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by dodomad : Vale of the White Horse - one of a set of illustrations by Eric Ravilious, featuring hill figures from the south-east and south-west of England, all painted in 1939, and intended to illustrate a children’s book he was working on for Puffin. Now available as a set of postcards from Rather Good Art. The book got as far as the mock-up stage by 1942, but sadly never reached completion. Ra...

Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse submitted by Orcinus : Uffington White Horse 1989

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"Uffington White Horse" | Login/Create an Account | 33 News and Comments
  
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Re: Uffington White Horse by Hatty on Thursday, 20 February 2020
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How can a chalk carving be dated? Bearing in mind the Uffington horse has been scoured every seven years for about three hundred years, stratigraphy is hardly helpful.

According to Pastscape, the earliest written mention of the Uffington horse was in 1681.

"The White Horse is known to have existed since at least the 12th century on place name evidence. The first documented maintenance of the horse dates to 1681, and subsequent restorations occurred at various intervals until the last recorded scouring funded by the landlord in 1892. Scouring took place every seven years from at least 1677"
[ Reply to This ]

New, much earlier, date for the Uffington White Horse made public by Andy B on Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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Heddwas writes: I went to a really interesting multi-disciplinary study day on the Uffington White Horse yesterday, run by Oxford's Department for Continuing Education and hosted by Dr David Miles.

The headline, though, "hot off the press", as it were, is that Dr Jean-Luc Schwenninger gave a presentation reviewing the original OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating from the 1990s (see Rees-Jones & Tite 1997). They have just re-analysed part of the original multi-grain feldspar sample (797a) taken from the base of the 'belly' trench - where the stratigraphy is more reliable than the 'beak', which is likely to have been disturbed - and not just by Peter Grimes in 1946.

The revised date derived from this new OSL work is 3965 BP +/- 345, which pushes the date of the Horse's original construction back to 2020 - 1330 BCE. In other words back to the Early Bronze Age, rather than the late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age as previously thought.

I'm not sure when they're going to publish this officially but I thought you'd be interested to know. David Miles' book is excellent by the way - see below.

Refs:
Rees-Jones, J. & Tite, M.S (1997): 'Optical dating of the Uffington White Horse' in Archaeological Sciences 1995 Sinclair, A., Slater, E., and Gowett, J. (eds): Proceedings of a conference on the application of scientific techniques to the study of archaeology; Liverpool, July 1995. Oxbow Archaeological Monograph 64 pp 171-4. Oxford, Oxbow Books.

Miles, D. (2019) The Land of the White Horse. London, Thames & Hudson.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: New, much earlier, date for the Uffington White Horse made public by Heddwas on Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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    Sorry for the typo above: OSL is of course "optically stimulated luminescence" dating :-)
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: New, much earlier, date for the Uffington White Horse made public by Andy B on Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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      Sorry that was my incorrect edit - now fixed. Thanks for the really interesting news.
      [ Reply to This ]
    Re: New, much earlier, date for the Uffington White Horse made public by SandyG on Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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    I think we should be careful about OSL dates in archaeological contexts. There are too many uncertainties to allow them to be accepted at face value and they should all come with a very strong health warning. The revision mentioned here is a case in point, but problems with the resetting of the optical signal are known and cannot really be factored in. To test the reliability of the technique I had three samples from different levels in a single event secure stratigraphic sequence dated using this technique. The lowest came back at 320-500 AD. The middle one at 100-400 AD and the top one at 1310-1450 AD. These results I believe confirm that we need to be very careful when dealing with OSL dates. Other dates from this work were also horrendously problematic and contradictory and whilst some seemed fine they too of course are tainted by association.
    [ Reply to This ]

Josh Pollard investigates the White Horse of the Sun by Andy B on Saturday, 02 September 2017
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Carved into the chalk of a hillside in southern England, the Uffington White Horse is utterly unique. Stretching 360 feet from head to tail, it is the only prehistoric geoglyph - a large-scale design created using elements of the natural landscape - known in Europe. “There’s just nothing like it,” says University of Southampton archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who points to the Nazca lines in Peru as the closest parallel. Pollard says that because the site is so anomalous, researchers have resisted grappling with its distinct nature. As a consequence, few new interpretations of the site have been advanced since the early twentieth century. [Really?! - MegP Ed - see comments below!] “Archaeologists are tripped up by things that are unique,” says Pollard, “and the White Horse has thrown us.” But now, after making a close study of the site and its relationship to the landscape around it, Pollard has developed a theory that connects the Uffington Horse with an ancient mythological tradition.

Stories about the White Horse have been recorded since medieval times. One popular legend had it being carved in celebration of an Anglo-Saxon victory over a Viking army in A.D. 875. But excavations in the 1990s yielded dates that showed it was created much earlier, during the Late Bronze Age or the Iron Age, sometime between 1380 and 550 B.C. Most archaeologists have thought that the site was probably a symbol that signaled a prehistoric group’s ownership of the land—their attempt at creating a landmark that was meant to impress outsiders. But Pollard did not find that idea wholly persuasive. “It doesn’t really work that way,” he says. “For one, the way it’s positioned makes it difficult to see the whole geoglyph from the surrounding landscape.” Pollard found that there are other hillside locations in the immediate vicinity that are much more visible, and where creating a totemic image meant to symbolize a group’s identity would have made more sense.

More at
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/269-1709/from-the-trenches/5830-trenches-england-prehistoric-uffington-white-horse
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Uffington White Horse by h_fenton on Monday, 07 May 2012
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Grid Reference: SU 30120 86630
Accuracy: 5
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Re: Uffington White Horse by technopagans on Monday, 12 March 2012
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Sorry pedantic purists but I love it! I think the artists who designed the horse way back when would appreciate the humour too. NT must have given its approval. I think a lot more people, including children, will look at this and other ancient sites as more relevant. No harm done and more attention for the horse. A win win all round.

Cerridwen Fitzpatrick=Connelly
journalist, sculptor
[ Reply to This ]

Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Andy B on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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Bookmaker Paddy Power temporarily added a giant jockey to a ancient hill carving in Oxfordshire. The firm said it added 200m of canvas to the Uffington Horse under the cover of darkness, ahead of the Cheltenham Festival. The Bronze-Age chalk hill figure was altered by the Irish firm Paddy Power using night vision goggles to create a temporary rider on the horse.

The artwork was pinned to the ground using tiny tent pegs and later removed. The firm said it took six hours to create the jockey on the horse, which is owned by the National Trust.

Paddy Power from the firm which bears his name said: "It's been taken down already.

"We had it up this morning and lots of pictures were taken and then the ranger on site asked us to remove it.

More at BBC News
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Runemage on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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    Why did they have to vandalise the site itself? In this age of photoshop, they could have produced an image for their ad without touching the original.

    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Andy B on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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    National Trust Archaeologist Guy Salkeld said "This was done without the knowledge of the National Trust and far as we can tell, there was no Scheduled Monument Consent."

    A NT spokesman added: "We're fans of racing as much as anyone but we'll need to investigate if the pegs they've used have caused damage to a monument that's been here for thousands of years. We'd normally be asked about this kind of thing in advance to help avoid any issues with damage and we've yet to see the promised donation.

    The internationally-renowned Bronze-Age Uffington White Horse can be seen for miles away leaping across the head of a dramatic dry valley in the Ridgeway escarpment. The horse is only part of the unique complex of ancient remains that are found at White Horse Hill and beyond, spreading out across the high chalk downland.

    It is located in the area said to be the site where St. George, England's patron saint, slew the dragon. The blood poisoned the ground and left a white chalk scar for all to see. Crowning White Horse Hill is an Iron Age hillfort known as Uffington Castle.

    A simple design of one rampart and ditch, the castle at 860 feet (262m) above sea level forms the highest point in Oxfordshire, with views for miles around over six counties. Across the property Burial Mounds can be spotted. These date from the Neolithic period and have been reused up to the Saxon age. The largest contained 47 skeletons and this can be seen as you walk up to the Horse from the car park.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Runemage on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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    Board of Directors
    http://www.paddypowerplc.com/cms/board_of_directors

    Contact Us Address:
    Paddy Power plc, Power Tower,
    Belfield Office Park,
    Beech Hill Road,
    Clonskeagh,
    Dublin 4, Ireland
    Telephone: 00353 1 905 1000
    Fax: 00353 1 905 1001

    Email info@paddypowerplc.com

    Finances up to 2010 http://www.paddypowerplc.com/cms/five_year_summary

    Any fine should be commensurate with a goodly slice of their profits.
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Andy B on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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      Yeah, I'm not really wanting to give them more publicity but people need to know. However it doesn't sound like any harm was done this time, I can think of worse stunts in the recent past. Do we really want to be like the proverbial librarian shussing everyone in the ancient sites 'library' - only rantier? Pick your battles I say.
      [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by ledgehammer on Thursday, 08 March 2012
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    ooo, not great timing really

    They obviously dont think it is a unicorn ;-)

    Tom
    [ Reply to This ]
    Update Re: Bookmaker adds jockey to Uffington Horse by Andy B on Friday, 09 March 2012
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    Update:

    Sharon Smith, curator of the village’s Tom Brown School Museum and Uffington Parish councillor, said: “It is over 3,000-years-old, it has been revered throughout the generations and it is not for advertising.”

    Chairman of Uffington Parish Council Graham Banks said he was relieved it had not been damaged.

    But he said: “It is not the right thing to do with an ancient monument. It has a lot of meaning to the villagers and other people in the Vale.It is a treasured monument.”

    Paddy Power, which now claims to have donated £1,000 to the National Trust, said it spent a month preparing the stunt to ensure no harm was done.

    A spokesman said: “We didn’t ask permission because we knew the answer would be no. But no harm has been done, it is down now. If anything we have actually highlighted the beautiful horse.”

    More at
    http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/9579762.Horse_stunt_is_a__desecration_/
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Uffington White Horse by Anonymous on Sunday, 12 February 2012
In the summer of 2007 there was an incredible rainstorm and my train travel from Bath to East Grinstead was entirely re-routed. It was absolute chaos and people were just hopping on any train that would carry them basically east, as the most direct route had been flooded. I remember passing by a chalk figure as we traveled somewhere through the south of England. Does anyone know if this figure can be see from the railway tracks? I'm writing a story about it and am trying to get my facts straight.

Cheers,

Kristie
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Uffington White Horse by chimera on Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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Does that vet treat dogs with horns and beards?
[The two yales, Bedford and Beaufort, share the swivelling horns and the tusks, but have little else in common.
., but the horns pointing forward and back, and the goat’s feet, confirm it is a yale.

In respect of the feet it is worth noting that the yales on the roof of St George’s Chapel at Windsor have the rear paws of a lion ~ which may suggest to some that the yale is really the Hindu yali, known to avert the evil eye, which resembles a lion with horns. ]
------------
"Yale" is from Assyrian ia-ilu "to ascend", Babylonian ialu, and was a sacred ibex goat with straight horns, Hebrew jael "mountain goat".
The swivelling horns allowed a horn damaged in battle to be replaced by the rear horn, as a unicorn. The Heraldic Unicorn has goat beard and feet, lion's tail and lion's tufts of hair on the legs.

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Re: Uffington White Horse by technopagans on Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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Claim that the White Horse of Uffington is actually a dog:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/oct/12/white-horse-uffington-dog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-11531634

What do you think?

Cerridwen Connelly
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Re: White Horse of Uffington is a dog, claims vet by chimera on Monday, 18 October 2010
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It can't be a horse, and dogs don't have straight horns, like this:

dragons
300-600 B.C., was found in Mesopotamia and is now in the Louvre Museum, Paris - dragon ... While digging for the ruins of the ancient empire of Babylon in ... Well, St. George, being a brave man, met the dragon head on and drove his ...
http://www.faithalone.com/dragons.html - Cached - Similar
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Re: White Horse of Uffington is a dog, claims vet by chimera on Sunday, 17 October 2010
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No horse has ears that long or a beard, but a goat has horns and beard. No horse has curved rear legs different from the front legs, or a thin tail, but a lion does. The Beaufort Yale on Windsor chapel is a goat with lion hindquarters.
[ Reply to This ]

White Horse of Uffington is a dog, claims vet by bat400 on Sunday, 17 October 2010
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Animal expert says 3,000-year-old Oxfordshire landmark may have to be renamed

Submitted by coldrum --


It is one of Britain's most-loved ancient hill figures, careering across the downland. Now vets are being urged to question whether the White Horse of Uffington was meant to be a horse at all.

Challenging the traditional description of the Oxfordshire landmark, retired vet Olaf Swarbrick asks whether the "beautiful, stylised" figure might instead be a dog such as a greyhound or wolfhound.

In a letter to the Veterinary Record, his profession's journal, the former cattle and poultry specialist suggests a canine origin for the 110-metre by 38.5-metre animal, which was carefully dug into the downland. He invites alternative theories, too.

Swarbrick says: "Looking at it again, it seems that it is not a horse at all: the tail and head are wrong for a horse and more suggestive of a dog. It appears more like a large hound at full stretch."

The horse, if it is one, is about 3,000 years old, dating from 1250-850BC if most recent theories are correct. Doubts over its equine origin have been aired before but written records suggest the hill on whose slopes it gallops has been named after the white horse since at least the 11th century.

Swarbrick told the Guardian: "I was just saying it was not a horse which will perhaps infuriate some archaeologists." If colleagues agreed with him, "quite a lot of people, including the Ordnance Survey, will have to change their terminology".

Keith Blaxhall, the National Trust warden for the area, was not convinced. "I think we all think it is a horse," he said, adding that coins from roughly the same period show a similar stylised horse and chariot. "Horses were enormously important. It signified power. You were mobile.
The dog suggestion was new to him. "I have really only heard the theory it is feline because of its sinuous design."

Blaxhall was unworried by the site's equine symbolism being doubted. "It is different things to different people. Who is really to know? It is prehistory. No one wrote anything down. It is just a magical place and people are drawn to it."

For more, see http://www.guardian.co.uk.
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Vandals deface Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire by coldrum on Saturday, 19 June 2010
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Vandals have targeted the ancient Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire by spraying part of it purple.

Officers from Thames Valley Police were called to the 3,000-year-old chalk monument at about 2200 BST on Thursday.

They found the head and eye of the horse had been sprayed with purple paint. A banner that read "fathers 4 justice stop the secret family courts" was recovered from the scene.

New Fathers 4 Justice and Real Fathers for Justice both denied responsibility.

Police and members of the National Trust have been working to re-chalk the monument.


Real Fathers for Justice spokesman

Sgt Steve Clark said: "The monument has been pretty much restored now and is back to how it should look.

"This was a mindless act of criminal damage on an ancient monument and I would urge anyone with information about the incident to come forward and speak to us as soon as possible."

Richard Henderson, the National Trust's general manager for Oxfordshire, said: "We are appalled by this act of mindless vandalism to one of the country's most famous ancient monuments.

"It is particularly sad as only last weekend members of the public helped re-chalk the horse as part of a traditional community volunteering event."
Defaced White Horse Volunteers had only re-chalked the horse a week ago

The White Horse at Uffington is the oldest dated chalk figure in the country and forms part of a landscape of ancient sites.

The original group called Fathers 4 Justice was closed down in 2008. A group called the New Fathers 4 Justice formed shortly afterwards.

A spokesman for the New Fathers 4 Justice, calling himself Captain Equality, denied any responsibility for the attack, saying: "Fathers have started using the name for their own protest but we don't condone vandalism, it's not our style."

A rival group calling themselves the Real Fathers for Justice who claim to have been operating since 2005, also distanced themselves from the stunt.

A spokesman said: "They should've picked a legitimate target like a courthouse not an historic monument which should be protected for our children.

"This is criminal damage and nothing's going to be achieved by that."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxford/10238108.stm
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Street View by coldrum on Saturday, 27 March 2010
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Bank holiday grooming for Oxfordshire's White Horse by coldrum on Thursday, 18 June 2009
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Bank holiday grooming for Oxfordshire's White Horse

The age-old tradition of "scouring" or re-chalking one of Britain's most mysterious ancient monuments – and having a knees- up at the same time – is being revived this bank holiday weekend.

For centuries locals used to clamber up White Horse hill, freshen up the prancing creature carved into the chalky Oxfordshire slopes and enjoy folk music, games and one or two glasses of something refreshing.

The event, which included horse racing and chasing a round of cheese down the steep slopes, was halted in 1857 after about 30,000 people who turned up became just a little bit too rowdy.

But the National Trust, which has managed the hill for the last 30 years, has decided the time is right to revive the tradition.

Several hundred people are expected to make sure the horse – now a little faded around the edges, thanks to the close attention of sheep and rain – is returned to its former glory.

Caroline Searle, White Horse hill warden, said: "Local people feel very fond of the horse. They want to feel they are involved in its care. So we thought a good way would be to invite them up here and get them to help to rechalk the figure."

She shudders at the term "scouring". In times gone by, the "scouring" involved stripping a layer of chalk away to make the figure gleam. Now they simply replace a layer of chalk, quarried locally.

The horse was created in the late bronze age, about 3,000 years ago. Exactly how it was constructed is largely a matter of guesswork but it is thought an outline was made in the turf, then deep trenches were dug and filled and packed with chalk.

The reason for its construction is unknown. Intriguingly, the whole of the figure can be seen clearly only from the air; there is an incomplete view of it from nearby villages and the London-to-Bristol rail line. Some think it is a religious figure, others that it functioned as a tribal boundary.

Helping prepare for the weekend's fun yesterday were Genevieve MacIndoe and her children, Natasha, 12, and Rob, 10, from the nearby village of Uffington. "We're very proud of the horse," said Ms MacIndoe. "It's a magical figure and a magical kind of place."

Rob was delighted to be told that an acoustic trick means that someone standing in the valley – or the manger as it is known – can be heard on the White Horse hillside.

"We love coming up here and seeing the horse," Natasha said. "It's nice to help preserve it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/22/oxfordshire-white-horse-bank-holiday
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    Re: Bank holiday grooming for Oxfordshire's White Horse by Anonymous on Thursday, 29 December 2011
    That "Natasha" is me. I didn't actually know the Gaurdian published this. I'm late (3 yrs :P) but proud :P
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Uffington White Horse by coldrum on Friday, 16 May 2008
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National Trust website:

nationaltrust

Tania Kovats Museum of the White Horse:

museumofthewhitehorse
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Re: Uffington White Horse by h_fenton on Sunday, 07 October 2007
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bearing in mind that the uffington white horse is on reasonably unique shaped hill, and i know its there, on a very clear day recently i could see with my eyes (only just) the back of the horse, from 18miles roughly north (according to google earth), i wonder where the furthest location on the ground is that you can get a reasonable view of the horse --> i mean like see the different features - legs, head, et cetera
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Re: Uffington White Horse by Anonymous on Sunday, 19 August 2007
I didn't realise there's one here as well.
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Re: Uffington White Horse by Anonymous on Friday, 30 January 2004
Condition:5
Ambience:5
Access:5
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