Vale of the White Horse

The Vale of Pewsey and Wiltshire in general can boast of a number of white horses—that is the outline of a horse revealed on the side of a down by scraping away the grass and topsoil and revealing the white chalk underneath. These white horse evoke a timeless sense, until you realize that many of them are of relatively recent vintage. But I don’t think that detracts much from their appeal.

Unfortunately I don’t think any of the white horses are visible from the Kennet & Avon Canal, certainly not from a canal boat or even from the towpath, but I suppose you might catch a glimpse from a bridge over the canal … maybe.

Your best bet to see one from the canal is the Alton Barnes White Horse on Milk Hill. This horse was cut in 1812 and you can see it looking north from the Honey Street Bridge over the canal. Honey Street is a hamlet 7.8 mi/12.6 km west of Pewsey. You’ll really have to zoom into the picture above (looking up the road) to see the horse, however. From the canal it’s a 1.6 mi/2.6 km walk or ride to the horse.

The next horse you theoretically could see from the canal is the Devizes White Horse, just north of the town of Devizes. You might be able to glimpse the horse where Horton Road crosses the canal (I doubt it). It will be about 1.5 mi/2.4 km away to the west northwest. Luckily it’s pretty easy to walk to the horse.

Leave the canal just east of the top lock of the Caen Hill flight of locks (the New Park Road bridge) and travel north northeast on Quakers Walk, a bridlepath that’s also part of the Wessex Ridgeway long distance trail. You can also cycle the path, but please give right-of-way to the horses. They’re bigger than you. It’s about 1.80 mi/2.90 km to the horse.

This is the newest white horse, however, cut in 1999 to celebrate the millennium, and is very near to a previous white horse, Snobs Horse, cut in 1845, but since faded to near obscurity.

If you walk to the Devizes White Horse, you might as well walk up nearby Oliver’s Castle, an Iron Age hill fort on Roundway Down. This is also the site of the Battle of Roundway Down, when royalists defeated parliamentary forces during the English Civil War in 1643.

The Pewsey White Horse is probably the best known chalk figure, but I’ve no idea if you can see it from the canal. I suspect you can’t, but it does face the canal. This horse is also relatively new, cut in 1937, and also replaces an older white horse pretty much lost to view.

You can drive to the white horse, but it’s best to park in Pewsey (there’s free parking next to Bouverie Hall) and walk to it, about 1.8 mi/2.9 km. From Pewsey Wharf on the canal it would be a 2.6 mi/4.2 km walk or ride. Of course, then you need to walk back.

These are the white horses nearest to the canal and theoretically visible from the canal. If you make a side trip to Avebury, you might try to see the Cherhill White Horse, the Preshute White Horse or the Broad Town White Horse. The oldest white horse in Wiltshire (earliest mention is 1742) is the Westbury or Bratton White Horse, but it’s far south of the canal at Trowbridge. It’s also a little disappointing in that it’s been overlaid with concrete for easier maintenance.

The most famous and oldest white horse in the south is the Uffington White Horse, but as it’s in Berkshire and about 10.5 mi/16.9 km north of Hungerford and the canal, is probably too far for narrowboaters to visit without resorting to a bike, taxi or rideshare. It would be well worth the effort, however, because it may be 3,000 years old, there’s also a nearby Iron Age hill fort and the mysterious Wayland’s Smithy.

The Uffington White Horse is special because it’s a highly stylized figure (great as jewelry or on a T-shirt) and best reflects the awe with which ancient humans must have regarded the horse. I hope to have time to ride to it on my upcoming trip.