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Help needed to re-chalk one of Wiltshire’s white horses

Posted in british history, chalk hill figures, countryside, prehistory, Salisbury Guided Tours, Stonehenge, Stonehenge private tours, strange wiltshire, wessex, Wiltshire on May 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Chalk from Hampshire is used to re-chalk the ancient Wiltshire hill figure

A restoration group is appealing for volunteers to help re-chalk one of Wiltshire’s oldest hill figures.

The Cherhill White horse, cut into the Marlborough Downs, is owned and maintained by the village of Cherhill.

The 232-year-old hill figure underwent a major facelift in 2002 after losing both its whiteness and its horse shape.

Since then the 18th Century landmark, the second oldest in the county, has required a “re-chalking” every two years.

“It had been continuously scraped to reveal fresh chalk but that left a three foot cliff at the top of the horse,” said the restoration group’s chairman, Rob Pickford.

“Now we top it up with extra chalk to level it with the surrounding ground.”

Yellow horse

The horse, one of nine such monuments in the county, requires up to 10 tonnes of chalk to restore it to its former splendour.

The chalk, funded by donations from visitors to the Downs, is being “brought in” after the last chalk quarry in the county at Mere closed down.

“The first top dressing we did we got the chalk from Somerset,” said Mr Pickford. “It was very yellow with bits of grey flint in it so we ended up with a yellow horse with grey spots. This year we’re getting it from a quarry in Hampshire.”

Natural erosion from the weather is normally responsible for the discolouring of the ancient monument.

However, this year’s unusually dry and sunny conditions have “bleached the chalk”.

“It’s looking quite white at the moment but in February it was looking particularly grey,” said Mr Pickford.

“And some of the boards used to hold the chalk in place have become exposed, so it does need top dressing.”

The re-chalking is due to take place on Saturday 14 May and is expected to take up to six hours.

Volunteers are being asked to meet at the Black Horse car park at 9:30 am “armed with spades.” I am taking the kids and a picnic – see you there ?

Wiltshire’s White Horses

The Wiltshire Countryside is famous for its white horse chalk hill figures. It is thought that there have been 13 white horses in existence in Wiltshire, but only 8 are still visible today.

The oldest, largest and perhaps the most well known white horse is carved into the chalk hillside across the border in Oxfordshire. Little is known of the history of the Uffington White Horse, but it is believed to have influenced the cutting of the subsequent Wiltshire horses.

The first of the Wiltshire white horses to appear was at Westbury in 878AD, although this figure is no longer visible as a new horse was cut on top in 1778. The most recent horse was cut on the hill above Devizes to celebrate the Millennium.
Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-13294489
http://www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/
http://www.StonehengeTours.com
http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/site/things-to-do/attractions/history-and-heritage/white-horses
We continue to offer private guided tours of Wiltshire that include ‘Chalk Hill Figures’

Wiltshite Tour Guide
HisTOURies UK – The Best Tours of Ancient Wiltshire

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Crop Circle season begins. The first crop circle of the season appears in historic Wiltshire field

Posted in Avebury, cley hill, crop circles, events in wiltshire, sightseeing, stone circle, strange wiltshire, ufo, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Crop Circles on May 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The unseasonably warm spring weather has not only brought forward many summer flowers – it has sparked the usual round of crop circles.

An elaborate 100ft circle which appeared overnight has caused a stir after it was found in a field of oil seed rape near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire.

The extraordinary floral creation is comprised of six interlocking ‘petal’ like crescents.

The ancient site, the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe, is considered a hot spot for the bizarre phenomena and this new design proves the crop circle season is now under way.

Expert Lucy Pringle, widely known as an international authority on crop circles, believes this is the first ‘proper’ design of the year.

She added: ‘The start of the season is always exciting, I never know what’s going to happen for the rest of the year.

‘The latest circle is a floral pattern, I’ve never seen this before. There’s never been one identical to another.’

Miss Pringle, from Petersfield, Hants, is a founder member of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies.

She has conducted years of research in to the physiological and psychological effects reported by people after visiting the formations.

She says her findings suggest there are measured changes in human hormones and brain activity following contact with the circles.

The new ‘floral’ design is the latest in a long line of patterns to be spotted in the UK over the years.

Previous formations have included stars, triangles, birds, complicated three dimensional geometric shapes and even intricate patterns with hidden mathematical codes.

One, discovered in 2008 near Wroughton in Wiltshire, was thought to represent the first ten digits of pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383035/First-crop-circle-season-appears-historic-Wiltshire-field.html

Crop Circle Tours 2011: We operate guided tours of Wiltshire including all the best crp circles. We know where they are, when thay happen and get you inside – a unique experience. THere are already more formations in Wiltshire that we are visiting

http://www.histouries.co.uk/crop-circle-tours.htm

Crop Circle Tour Guide
HisTOURis UK – Private guided tours of Wessex

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May Day Traditions

Posted in british history, England facts, english culture, events in wiltshire, may day, old sarum, sightseeing, strange wiltshire, wessex, Wiltshire on May 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance. It is when people celebrate the coming of summer with lots of different customs that are expressions of joy and hope after a long winter.

Traditional English May Day celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and dancing around a Maypole.

The beginning of Summer

Although summer does not officially begin until June, May Day marks its beginning. May Day celebrations have been carried out in England for over 2000 years.

The Romans celebrated the festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers, which marked the beginning of summer. It was held annually from April 28th to May 3rd.

How was May Day Celebrated in the past?

It was custom for every one to go a-Maying early on May Day. Herrick, a 17th century English poet wrote:

There’s not a budding boy, or girl, this day,
But is got up, and gone to bring in May.

Decorating Houses

May Day began early in the morning. People would go out before sunrise in order to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their houses and villages with in the belief that the vegetation spirits would bring good fortune.

Washing in the early morning dew

Girls would make a special point of washing their faces in the dew of the early morning. They believed this made them very beautiful for the following year. copyright of protectbritain.com

May Queen

The rest of the day was given over to various festivities. There was dancing on the village green, archery contest and exhibitions of strength. The highlight of the day was the crowning of the May Queen, the human replica of Flora. By tradition she took no part in the games or dancing, but sat like a queen in a flower-decked chair to watch her ‘subjects’.

May Day Garlands

Young girls would make May Garlands. They covered two hoops, one at right angles inside the other, with leaves and flowers, and sometimes they put a doll inside to represent the goddess of Spring.

In some parts of Britain, May 1st is called Garland Day.

The first of May is Garland Day
So please remember the garland.
We don’t come here but once a year,
So please remember the garland.

May Day Lifting

There was once a tradition in England of ‘lifting’ where a gang of young men would lift a pretty girl in a flower bedecked chair on May day. Then the girl would choose a boy on May 2nd.

May Day Tricks

In the North of England, the first of May was a kind of late ‘April Fooling’ when all sorts of pranks would take place and ‘May Gosling’ was the shout if you managed to trick someone. The response would be:

‘May Goslings past and gone. You’re the fool for making me one!’

Enjoy Wiltshire!
Stonehenge Tour Guide
HisTOURies UK – The Best Tours in Wesex

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MoD Releases Thousands Of ‘X-Files’ – Strange Wiltshire

Posted in cley hill, crop circles, sightseeing, strange wiltshire, ufo, UK Tourism updates, Wiltshire Crop Circles on March 3, 2011| 1 Comment »

Thousands of files with details of UFO sightings and an “alien abduction” in London have been released for the first time by the Ministry Of Defence.
Over the last fifty years thousands of people across Wiltshire have recorded seeing strange sights in the skies – and in many cases the same pulsing lights hovering above one town have been witnessed by hundreds of people.

The previously classified files contain over 8,500 pages that reveal the phenomenon has been discussed at the highest levels of governments worldwide and in 1979 the House of Lords held Parliament’s only ever full debate on the subject.

The files, which also contain pictures, described how for a few hours in 1967 a War Of The Worlds-style incident was treated as a potentially real alien invasion of the UK.

Another startling revelation said in the months before the September 11 attacks, 15 unidentified aircrafts were detected on radar approaching the UK and one was detected on the actual day.

Other revelations from the 35 files include the story of a family capturing on film flashing red and white lights zig-zagging their way through the sky during the early hours in 2003.

You can see from the files that I wasn’t the only one interested in the subject, with the phenomenon discussed at the highest level of government right across the globe

Dr David Clarke – author and senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University

Police officers, including a helicopter team, also witnessed the 20 to 30 lights over Bromley, Kent and reported the incident. Radar checks revealed nothing unusual.

The documents read: “A policeman sent to investigate confirmed the sighting. Objects were moving faster than any man-made aircraft.”

In another case a man told the MoD he believed he had been beamed up by an alien craft from his home in Barnes, south west London.

He described having a glass of milk in his garden on a night in October 1998 and “after a few moments I heard a distant roar of engines getting louder and louder.”

The man said he was terrified as a huge “cigar-shaped vehicle” appeared over his house and said it felt like he had gained a whole hour.

A Naional Achives photo

A doughnut-shaped UFO photographed by a retired RAF officer in Sri Lanka.

“I am now beginning to wonder if I was abducted,” he told the MoD, which wrote back to him saying the clocks had gone back the night before.

The phenomenon of extra-terrestrials has fascinated people for centuries and the files also detail in full the Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and letters from “persistent enquirers” that led to the MoD opening up its files for the first time in history.

Dr David Clarke, author of the book The UFO Files, said since the introduction of the FOI act questions on UFOs were the top three most popular FOI requests received by the MoD.

“You can see from the files that I wasn’t the only one interested in the subject, with the phenomenon discussed at the highest level of government right across the globe.”

A Naional Achives photo

A photo among the 35 files of a sketch of UFO in South Wales.

Another incident detailed is of six small “flying saucers” in a perfect line sighted in southern England.

An investigation found it to be a ‘rag-day’ hoax by engineering students from Farnborough Technical College.

In 1978, the RAF was bombarded with claims that a UFO was zipping across the sky as witnesses described a mystery orange cigar-shaped object with lights covering its base and a white cockpit.

An investigation revealed the sightings coincided with the re-entry of space debris into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The files contain pages of UFO sightings and reports, colour photographs and drawings, RAF investigations, unusual radar detections, parliamentary briefings and – for the first time – documents on the government’s policy on UFOs

Strange Wiltshire Over the last fifty years thousands of people across Wiltshire have recorded seeing strange sights in the skies – and in many cases the same pulsing lights hovering above one town have been witnessed by hundreds of people.

Tour guides at Histouries UK are looking forward to another good crop circle season here in Wilsthire. 2010 saw a record year, what will 2001 bring ? We have taken 1000’s of people to 100’s of crop cicle formations in the Wessex area. We know where they are and when they appear. Follow this blog and our tweets for daily crop circle updates.

Links:
http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/site/things-to-do/attractions/crop-circles
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/moonraking/spooky_ufo.shtml
http://www.ufo-warminster.co.uk/books/books_direct.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warminster
http://www.wccsg.com/

Crop Circle Tour Guide
HisTOURies UK – The Best Spooky Tours in Wiltshire