The Wiltshire White Horses are a well photographed element of a history unique to England. In fact, other cultures have seen & liked them so much they have developed their own white horses.
There is a long list of white chalk horses, some of which are located in Wiltshire & collectively known as the Wiltshire horses, while others are located in different areas of Britain (& a few outside the country altogether). Hackpen (also called Broad Hinton & Winterbourne Bassett) white horse is one of the former and located within Wiltshire.
This horse was created on a fairly shallow slope, so banking was required under the head to make it more visible.
Hackpen Basics
Use the latitude & longitude coordinates to find it on Google earth yourself.
Where – This horse can be found on Hackpen Hill at the edge of Marlborough Downs, two miles SE of Broad Hinton Village.
Size – 90 feet wide by 90 feet high.
Year Created – 1838
Latitude & Longitude – 51.282069W 1.490317W
The Story
This white horse is a bit of a mystery, it was cut in 1838 by Henry Eatwell, a parish clerk of Broad Hinton to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria. Not much else is known about the horse other than more recent maintenance efforts.
In September of 2004 one Bevin Pope cleaned & weeded the entire thing singlehandedly – I guess enough was enough.
This horse has known intermittent bouts of maintenance & neglect (as Bevin above proved) & from what I read the horse is currently not very well maintained.
More Information
Here are a couple of sources for information about the Cherhill White Horse.
Hackpen White Horse
Wiltshire White Horses – Hackpen
More Huge White Horses
There are plenty more where that came from, this is just the second in a long list of huge horses on this planet of ours. Be sure to check out the list of white horses and stay tuned for more to come.