The Hackpen White Horse near Broad Hinton Wiltshire
Image details
Contributor:
somewhere else / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
DBGY40File size:
60.2 MB (3 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3744 x 5616 px | 31.7 x 47.5 cm | 12.5 x 18.7 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
26 June 2011Location:
Hackpen Hill Wiltshire England UKMore information:
The Hackpen white horse is near The Ridgeway on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, two miles south east of Broad Hinton village, on Hackpen Hill where the Wootton Bassett to Marlborough road zigzags up the hill. Its origin is uncertain. It may have been cut in 1838 by a Henry Eatwell, Broad Hinton parish clerk, perhaps with the assistance of the landlord of a local pub, to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria. This white horse is on a comparatively shallow slope, but is partly banked up to make it more easily visible. It can be seen from a distance from the high ground near the village of Cliffe Pypard to the west. From nearby it can be seen well from the Wootton Bassett to Marlborough road. There is a car park on Hackpen Hill where that road crosses The Ridgeway, and the horse can be reached easily from it. The horse has been cleaned quite frequently in recent years. In May or June 2000 John Wain cleaned it single-handedly, a task which took him some five hours. He later flew David Brewer over the area to photograph the village of Broad Hinton and the white horse for David's book "Images of a Wiltshire Downland Village: Broad Hinton and Uffcott". John cleaned the horse every year until 2003 or 2004. On September 23rd 2004 the horse was cleaned, again single-handedly, by Bevan Pope. On February 1st 2011 John Wain cleaned the horse again, this time with the help of a group of friends, and they did the same on February 4th 2012. On both those occasions they lit the newly-cleaned horse when the work was completed. The group plan to make this a yearly project, one which has the full support of the local farmers Jill and James Hussy.