archaicwonder:Bratton Castle & The Westbury White HorseBratton Camp Castle (also known as ‘Bratt
archaicwonder:Bratton Castle & The Westbury White HorseBratton Camp Castle (also known as ‘Bratton Castle ’) is an Iron Age hillfort located 1.5 mi east of Westbury in England. It has two ditches and banks which together enclose an area of 9.3 hectares. Some parts of it have been damaged by quarrying in the past. It was excavated by Jeffery Whittaker, a local schoolmaster, before 1775. This is thought to have been one of the earliest archaeological excavations to have taken place in Wiltshire. The excavation was poorly documented but it is believed that Roman and Saxon coins were found within the the fort. The site is also believed to enclose the remains of a Neolithic long barrow (burial chamber). The Westbury White Horse or Bratton White Horse, a hill figure first documented in 1742, lies on the west side of the hillfort. It is the oldest of several white horses carved in Wiltshire. It was restored in 1778, an action which may have obliterated a previous horse which had occupied the same slope. A contemporary engraving of the 1760s appears to show a horse facing in the opposite direction, and also rather smaller than the present figure. However, there is at present no documentary or other evidence for the existence of a chalk horse at Westbury before the year 1742. -- source link
#chalk