![Broad Hinton White Horse, Hackpen Hill - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Broad_Hinton_White_Horse%2C_Hackpen_Hill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_415006.jpg)
''Hackpen White Horse'' is a chalk
hill figure
A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and r ...
of a white
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
on Hackpen Hill, located below
The Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk r ...
on the edge of the
Marlborough Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better kno ...
, two miles south east of
Broad Hinton
Broad Hinton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlets of Uffcott and The Weir.
Disambiguation
This village of Broad Hinton near Swindon should not be confused with Broad ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is one of nine white horse hill figures located in Wiltshire. It is also known as the Broad Hinton White Horse due to its near location to Broad Hinton. Supposedly cut by local parish clerk Henry Eatwell in 1838 to commemorate the
coronation of Queen Victoria
The coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public p ...
, the horse is . The horse is regularly scoured and maintained.
Origins and early history
![Victoria coronation 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Victoria_coronation_2.jpg)
The origin of the horse is uncertain,
[Wiltshire White Horses: The Hackpen or Broad Hinton or Winterbourne Bassett white horse]
/ref> and is sometimes said to be the only 19th century white horse to have little of its history known.
/ref> It is generally regarded that the horse was cut in 1838 by Henry Eatwell, a parish clerk of Broad Hinton, assisted by a local pub landlord. It is said to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria
The coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public p ...
.
Description and location
The horse is cut of chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
, is , making it the only square-dimension horse in England, and faces west-northwest. Although Hackpen Hill is high (), it is a gentle slope, especially when compared to the hills of most other Wiltshire horses. Because the hill is gentle, the horse is partly banked up and slightly raised from the surrounding grass to make it more easily visible. The head was initially elevated to help with the foreshortening. The best view of the horse is said to be from the nearby B4041 road, whilst the A361 road
The A361 is an A class road in southern England, which at is the longest three-digit A road in the UK.
History
When first designated in 1922, the A361 ran from Taunton (Somerset) to Banbury (Oxfordshire). It was later extended west through ...
near Broad Hinton also provides a clear view.
At the top of the hill is a car park
A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surfac ...
where the Ridgeway crosses the B4041 road, and a footpath
A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...
stretches from there down to the horse, making the horse accessible to the public. Ironically, many real horses often roam the field.[Walking the Wessex White Horses - Hackpen]
/ref> It has been suggested that the stones for Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
and Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in t ...
may have come from a field of sarsen
Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire.
Geology ...
stones just to the south east of its location. The expression "as different as chalk and cheese" is sometimes believed to refer to the land divided by Hackpen Hill. The hill forms the boundary between the high chalk downs to the south of it and the clay cattle country to the north, where cheese is a product of the milk from the cattle, so the two areas "are as different as chalk and cheese." Hackpen White Horse was not the only hillside shape cut to commemorate Queen Victoria; in 1887, for her Golden Jubilee
A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...
, a hillside row of trees were planted in the shape of a "V" in Westmeston
Westmeston is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England heavily dependent in amenities on larger Ditchling to the near-immediate northwest. It is four miles (6 km) south-southeast of Burgess Hill and (10 ...
, Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
.
The horse ties "neck-and-neck" with Broad Town White Horse
Broad Town White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse located in the village of Broad Town, Wiltshire, England. One of eight canonical hill figures in Wiltshire depicting a white horse, it is carved into a 45° slope above Little Town Nursery ...
as the closest white horse to Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
.
Scouring and recent history
The horse is regularly scoured (cleaned and maintained). In either May or June 2000, John Wain cleaned it single-handedly, taking him some five hours. He later flew David Brewer over the area to photograph the village of Broad Hinton and the white horse for brewers's book ''Images of a Wiltshire Downland Village: Broad Hinton and Uffcott''. Wain cleaned it annually until Bevan Pope cleaned the horse single-handedly on 23 September 2004. Wain cleaned the horse again with the help of a group of friends on 1 February 2011 and 4 February 2012. On both occasions, they illuminated the newly cleaned horse when the work was completed. Although to illuminate a white horse has been sporadic tradition for other horses in Wiltshire, those occasions marked the first times it had been done for Hackpen White Horse.
In March 2009, the horse was transformed into a "red horse" for the Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
charity's Red Nose Day
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
campaign; this was achieved by covering the horse's shape with numerous red sheets and fabrics. The White Horse pub, located half a mile away in Winterbourne Bassett
__NOTOC__
Winterbourne Bassett is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Swindon and northwest of Marlborough.
The village lies just west of the A4361 road between Swindon and Devizes, about north of Avebu ...
, features an illustration resembling the horse as its logo.[The White Horse Winterbourne Bassett nr Swindon pub-food/Sunday-Lunch/Hackpen/Dog-Friendly]
/ref> The pub itself was named after the eight horses in Wiltshire.
The horse has also featured in several artworks, including a stained glass window
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
made by Berry Stained Glass, Benoit Philppe's ''The Hackpen White Horse'' oil on canvas
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
painting, and a silver necklace created in 2015 by Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...
-based jeweller Daniel Pike. In 2005, the horse appeared in episode 1 of series 6 of ''Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'', and, in 2012, for a Pukka Pies
Pukka Pies is a manufacturer of pies based in Syston, Leicestershire, England.
Products
The company's products include single-serve and sharing pies, sausage rolls, pasties, catering sausages, frozen puff pastry, and non-meat foods, with the ...
sponsorship advert for ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
travel series ''Ade in Britain'', Pukka Pies modified a photograph of the location to include a hill figure of one of their pies instead of the horse.Hillfigures.co.uk - A site dedicated to information about hill figures
/ref>
See also
;Wiltshire white horses
*Westbury White Horse
Westbury or Bratton White Horse is a hill figure on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain, approximately east of Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Located on the edge of Bratton Downs and lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, it is the oldest ...
*Pewsey White Horse
Pewsey White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse near the village of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. Cut of chalk in 1937, it replaces an earlier horse that had disappeared under the grass and is one of eight remaining white horses in Wiltshire ...
*Devizes White Horse
Devizes White Horse, officially known as the Devizes Millennium White Horse, is a chalk hill figure of a horse located on Bank Field, an escarpment at Roundway Hill, on the outskirts of the town of Devizes above the hamlet of Roundway, Wiltshire ...
*Broad Town White Horse
Broad Town White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse located in the village of Broad Town, Wiltshire, England. One of eight canonical hill figures in Wiltshire depicting a white horse, it is carved into a 45° slope above Little Town Nursery ...
*Cherhill White Horse
Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse ...
*Marlborough White Horse
Marlborough White Horse, also called the Preshute White Horse, is a hill figure on Granham Hill, a fairly shallow slope of the downland above the hamlet of Preshute, southwest of Marlborough in the county of Wiltshire, England. Dating from 1804 ...
*Alton Barnes White Horse
Alton Barnes White Horse is a chalk hill figure of a white horse located on Milk Hill some 1,000 metres north of the village of Alton, Wiltshire, England. The horse is approximately 180 feet high and 160 feet long, and was cut in 1812 under the ...
;Other white horses
*Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure, long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington (in the cerem ...
*Osmington White Horse
__NOTOC__
The Osmington White Horse is a hill figure cut into the limestone of Osmington Hill just north of Weymouth in Dorset in 1808. It is in the South Dorset Downs in the parish of Osmington.
The figure is of King George III riding his ...
*Kilburn White Horse
The Kilburn White Horse, , is a hill figure cut into the hillside in the North York Moors National Park near Kilburn in North Yorkshire, England. The figure is long by high and covers about and said to be the largest and most northerly hill ...
*Woolbury White Horse
Woolbury, or Woolbury Ring, is the site of an Iron Age univallate hill fort on Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, England.
Description
The site is described as a strong hilltop camp covering 20 acres, with a single bank and ditch, and has commanding ...
*Litlington White Horse
The Litlington White Horse is a chalk hill figure depicting a horse, situated on Hindover Hill (known locally as High-and-Over) in the South Downs, looking over the River Cuckmere to the west of the village of Litlington and north of East Bla ...
References
{{Hill figure
White horses (hill figures) in England
History of Wiltshire
1838 works
Monuments and memorials to Queen Victoria