England’s Ancient Chalk Horse Carvings
Wiltshire is a large county in south west England, home to England’s most beautiful building (Salisbury cathedral), mysterious Stonehenge and most of England’s chalk horses, carved out thousands of years ago on the Wessex Downs.
Always follow the Countryside Code, to keep all creatures safe.
Although some other places (like Sussex and Oxfordshire) have a few chalk figures carved into the grass, Wiltshire has most of them, and nearly always in the form of horses. Best seen from footpaths that cross the Wessex downs, these are now regularly maintained by volunteers, t1o stop1
It’s a mystery why they were carved. Although one apparently stopped a visiting King ever returning. He saw that the horse was ‘facing the other way’, and took it as a sign that he was not welcome!
Nearby Bradford-on-Avon(Liz and Kate Pope) is a historic town in Wiltshire, its named derived from its ‘broad ford’. With a strong link to the weaving industry, it still contains the remains of a large Roman villa, and an iconic arched stone bridge, built in the 13th century.
The small building on the bridge was a chapel, that also used to lock up prisoners, in the 17th century.
Just 12 minutes by train from the beautiful city of Bath, the town sits on the Bristol Avon River (a 75-mile river which begins in the hills near Acton Turville in southwest England. Before flowing to Bristol, and out to the sea at the Severn Estuary.
