White Horse

After saying our goodbyes to staff and family, we left our glamping pod and  had a meandering drive home, in no particular rush, to take in some of the beautiful countryside and villages.

At Westbury I saw this White Horse on the hillside. The sun was out and it begged to be photographed.

The history of these white horse carvings is that there are, or were, at least 24 of these hill figures in Britain, with 13 being in Wiltshire (8 still visible). The oldest of them all is at Uffington, Oxforsdshire, which is 3,000 years old. Most date from the last 300 years.

The Westbury white horse is the oldest of the Wiltshire horses, on a steep slope on Westbury Hill, immediately below Bratton Iron Age hillfort. It's about 300 years old and has been concreted and painted white to reduce maintenance costs.

In 1778, a Mr Gordon Gee had the horse re-cut to it's present day appearance. It's likely that this gave rise to the term for horses called 'G Gee'!