UP! - North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Cut to directions called out from below,
ensuring it looks good from afar.
DEVIZES: On Roundway Hill, 148ft (45m)
square, cut to celebrate the new
millennium. A time capsule is buried under
the head. Nearby, an earlier horse below
Oliver’s Castle hill fort was cut in 1845 but
was overgrown by the end of the century.
HACKPEN: Below the Ridgeway on the
edge of the Marlborough Downs. Known
as the Hackpen, Broad Hinton or
Winterbourne Bassett Horse and was cut in
1838, probably to mark Queen Victoria’s
coronation. Measures 89ft (27m) square.
MARLBOROUGH: Our smallest white
horse, 62ft (19m) long by 49ft (15m) high.
Can be glimpsed from the road between
Manton and Marlborough. Designed by a
local school pupil in 1804, well before
Marlborough College was built in 1843, but
now maintained by the College.
PEWSEY: Overlooks the Vale of Pewsey. Cut
in 1937 to commemorate George VI’s
coronation. At 95ft (29m) long by 33ft
(10m) high it replaced (but did not cover)
an earlier overgrown version.
UFFINGTON: On the Lambourn Downs
overlooking the Vale of the White Horse.
Looking artistically modern with its stylised
equine design, the White Horse at
Uffington was probably carved around
1,000 BC in the Late Bronze Age. It is the
oldest surviving hill figure in Britain. Aerial
photos show that this white horse is best
seen from above (see inset).
White horse walkabouts!
The Uffington White Horse can be viewed
at close quarters during a walk along the
Ridgeway, west of Wantage near the
Berkshire-Oxfordshire county boundary.
The other North Wessex Downs white
horses are conveniently sited in the
Wiltshire hills.
In 1999 Wiltshire gained a White Horse
Main photo: The White Horse at Cherhill
Inset: The Uffington White Horse
Page 8 photos: Sue Melvin
UP! On The North Wessex Downs | 7