IF you’ve ever wanted to know the history behind the famous Westbury White Horse, then you’re in for a treat at the Westbury Museum.
Visitors can enjoy a special exhibition devoted to the iconic hill figure with informative boards tracing its origins along with photographs, postcards and souvenir Victorian crested china. Children will be able to hunt the white horses hidden in the cabinets, try their hand at colourings or even get the chance to pin the tail on a white horse! Hand sewn white horses are also for sale.
The museum, on the first floor of Westbury library, is staging the exhibition to coincide with the long-awaited renovation and repainting of the hillside figure. The new colourful displays explain the horse’s origins as well as exploring the alternative theories that it could once have been cut to mark Alfred’s victory over the Danes at nearby Ethandun.
Visitors can also see how its shape has changed over the centuries, including its more modern transformations when cheeky additions have turned it into everything from a stallion to a jailbird complete with ball and chain. There is also a reminder of its role in wartime with fears that it could have been useful as a navigation aid to enemy aircraft led to the horse being hidden from view under a mound of bracken and wire netting.
The exhibition, which runs until September, will be crowned with an opportunity to see a film covering the life and work of artist Eric Ravilious whose iconic painting of the White Horse is so well known.
The acclaimed Drawn to War produced by Foxtrot Films, will be showing at the Laverton on Friday 18th August at 7pm. Tickets, which can be bought on the door, cost £7 and all profits will go to the museum to help pay for new exhibitions. Refreshments are available.
For more information about this and other heritage walks, talks and workshops, please visit the Westbury Museum Facebook page at Old Westbury, Wiltshire or visit their website at www.westburyheritagesociety.org.uk
