RESIDENTS are asking whether there are any plans to clean Westbury’s iconic White Horse which they say is looking very dirty and can barely be seen in the grey winter weather.
A poster on the town’s Westbury Spotted Facebook page said, “When driving past the white horse every day to work I must admit that it looks very dirty and you can barely see it, especially this time of the year and even in the summer it looks in bad shape. Are there any plans to paint it or put something on it to preserve the colour?” The post received over 20 responses.
English Heritage is the lead stakeholder in the cleaning regime. Their free site partnership manager Helen Allen told White Horse News, “We last conducted a deep clean of Westbury White Horse in 2018 in collaboration with Westbury Town Council and the Westbury Rotary Club.
“English Heritage is a charity and we rely on support from our members, supporters and volunteers, and we were very grateful indeed to the volunteers from the council and the club who gave up their time to help us with this process.
“Our team have been testing sustainable solutions to keep the horse looking whiter for longer, including paint trials which are scheduled to be completed in 2021.
“The next deep clean is currently scheduled for 2022.”