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]] The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised Hillfigure , 374 feet (110m) long, cut out of the turf on the upper slopes of Uffington Castle , an Iron Age hill fort near The Ridgeway , in southern England . It is located some five miles (eight kilometres) west of the town of Wantage . Locally, the hill upon which the figure is drawn is called '''White Horse Hill''' and the hills immediately surrounding it, the '''White Horse Hills'''. HISTORY OF THE FIGURE The figure is believed to date back some 3,000 years to the Bronze Age . This is based on Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating carried out following archaeological investigations in 1994 which produced three dates ranging between 1400 and 600 BC. Numerous other prominent prehistoric sites are located nearby, notably Wayland's Smithy , a Long Barrow less than two kilometres to the west. The cutting exposes the underlying Chalk making the Horse a striking figure. Up until the late 19th century the horse was scoured every seven years as part of a more general local Fair held on the hill. However, when the regular cleaning was halted the figure quickly became obscured. It now needs frequent work by English Heritage for the figure to remain visible. Best views of the horse are obtained from the north, particularly from around the village of Great Coxwell . The horse is thought to represent a tribal symbol perhaps connected with the builders of Uffington Castle . A more modern theory suggests that the stylised Horse figure acted as a sign to people passing on The Ridgeway advertising horses being sold or catered for at the hillfort. It is quite similar to horses depicted on pre-Roman British coinage and the Marlborough Bucket . For centuries, however, local people have maintained that it is a portrait of the Dragon slain by Saint George on the nearby Dragon Hill . The Blowing stone, a perforated Sarsen stone in a garden 2km away and which produces a note when blown through is thought to have possibly been moved from the White Horse site in 1750. In August 2002 the figure was defaced with the addition of a rider and three Dogs by members of the "Real Countryside Alliance" (Real CA). The act was denounced by the Countryside Alliance . {Link without Title} THE UFFINGTON HORSE IN POPULAR CULTURE
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This is some kind of replica near El Paso, Texas. Doesn't deserve a link until there's more info about it. --> SOURCE Dyer, J, Discovering Prehistoric England, Shire, 2001, ISBN 9780747805076 |
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