The Alton Barnes White Horse

Restoration of the Alton Barnes White Horse

The Alton Barnes White Horse is a chalk hill figure situated a little under a mile north of the village of the same name in Wiltshire. Our remit, on behalf of Natural England, was to restore the shape of the horse, and resurface it to make good the ravages of time.

The task was complicated by the fact that, because the horse is in an area of special scientific interest, we had to consider carefully how we could get all the limestone onto the horse without causing any damage to the surrounding grasses and wildlife. We overcame issue this by bagging the lime at the quarry and transporting it along farm tracks to the top of milk hill, and then lifting the bags individually by helicopter onto the horse.