The Vale of Red Horse, also called the Vale of the Red Horse or Red Horse Vale, is a rural district in southern Warwickshire, England, lying between the escarpment of Edgehill and the northern

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

around the valley of the Stour.''Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club'', v.14, (1903), p.217Pick, S. (1988) ''Exploring Rural England and Wales'', p.71 Early gazetteers noted the Vale as a rich corn-growing area, and it is still relatively sparsely populated: its main settlements are Kineton and Shipston-on-Stour.Beckinsale, R. (1980) ''The English Heartland'', Duckworth, p.5 The

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bath), Corini ...

runs through the area and the Battle of Edgehill was fought on its fringes in October 1642. The 17th century Warwickshire poet Michael Drayton devoted a long section of his topographical poem '' Poly-Olbion'' to what he called the "Vale of Red-horse", noting it was in length "near thirty miles" and deploring its obscurity compared to the better-known Vales of

White Horse A white horse is born predominantly white and stays white throughout its life. A white horse has mostly pink skin under its hair coat, and may have brown, blue, or hazel eyes. "True white" horses, especially those that carry one of the dominant ...

and

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

.Drayton in Anderson (ed) (1795) ''The Works of the British Poets'', III, p.390 The Vale takes its name from the

Red Horse of Tysoe The Red Horse of Tysoe was a hill figure in the parish of Tysoe, South Warwickshire, England, cut into the red clay below the escarpment of Edgehill. It gave its name to the surrounding area, which is still known as the Vale of Red Horse or Red Ho ...

, a hill figure once cut into the red clay near the village of Tysoe. The Red Horse was first recorded in 1607, and in its earliest form was nearly 100 yards long.Pevsner, Nikolaus and Wedgewood, Alexandra. ''The Buildings of England: Warwickshire'', Penguin, 1966, p.543 Various dates have been suggested for the figure's creation, ranging from the Anglo-Saxon period to the 15th century. It was lost by the First World War. The Vale of Red Horse has given its name to an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

and an electoral division of Warwickshire. The modern ward boundaries, which include the villages of Tysoe, Oxhill,

Whatcote Whatcote is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about northeast of Shipston on Stour in the Vale of the Red Horse.Edwards, 1950, p.51 The population at the 2011 census was 143. Manor The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Hug ...

, Pillerton Priors,

Pillerton Hersey Pillerton Hersey is a village and civil parish about north of Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, England. The village is on a stream that flows northwest to join the River Dene. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 170. Parish ...

and

Butlers Marston Butlers Marston is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-eastern Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district. In the 2001 census it had a population of 226, increasing to 232 in the 2011 Census. Butle ...

are smaller than the historic area of the Vale, which was considered to include all the low-lying ground separating the north Cotswolds from Edgehill."The Boundaries of the Cotswolds" in ''The Geographical Journal'', Volume 24 (1904), 91

References

{{coord, 52.124129, -1.529377, type:landmark_region:GB-WAR, display=title Geography of Warwickshire Valleys of Warwickshire Cotswolds

See also

References