White Horse Hill
My home town of Wantage sits in the Vale of the White Horse council district in the south west of Oxfordshire. It’s a typical council name dreamt up by some public sector prat with a grade F in corporate branding no doubt.
The White Horse referred to is carved into the top of a hill overlooking Uffington, out to the west of Wantage along some very narrow and twisty roads.
White Horse Hill was a place for an outing back in the 50′s and 60′s when we were kids. The typical destination for a Sunday afternoon “run” in the car. In those days nobody drove their cars except for special occasions, so taking the car out and going somewhere different to fly kites or kick balls or simply run around was quite a treat.
Back then there were no traffic controls on the hill. Provided the car could make the climb we’d just leave it in the field and walk the short climb up to Uffington Castle mounds and on to the White Horse.
We’d stand in the middle of the horse’s eye and make a wish. Folklore told us those wishes would come true, because of the horse’s magic. Of course they never did.
Nowadays there’s a pay and display car park nearly a mile away with some story boards and picnic tables. Out to the west there’s a farm of wind turbines. Apart from that the place hasn’t changed over much, but we can’t stand on the horse anymore.
Nobody is very clear on the origins of the carving. They know it dates back thousands of years and strangely the only place the whole thing can be seen properly is from overhead, from the sky.
Maybe they were sending messages to UFOs, or Martians? Above the horse is Uffington Castle with it’s circular earth mounded fortifications. Apparently the castle dates back to the Bronze Age around 500 BC.
