Recent plans to carve out a white horse on the Folkestone Downs escarpment have sparked a healthy debate amongst critics and supporters alike. Whatever your point of view, hill figures are undoubtedly one of the most intriguing features of chalk downland throughout southern England with many counties boasting an array of horses, crosses and even giants that can be seen for miles and miles around. But how old are these figures ? who carved them ? and why ?

There are almost 50 chalk hill figures in England. Perhaps the most popular and well known figures are those of the white horses which amount to 17 mainly lying in the counties of Wiltshire, Dorset and Berkshire. These white horses have traditionally been associated with good luck. A number of these horses can be dated to the recent past, the origin of others is a matter of some debate. Many believe that the ‘Westbury horse’ for example was originally carved to commemorate King Alfred’s victory over the Danes in 818 AD. The Uffington horse in Berkshire is thought to be even older perhaps dating back to the Belgian tribe occupying southern England between 50 BC and 50 AD.

The art of cutting chalk horses is called ‘leucippotomy’ and the term used for cutting giants is ‘gigantotomy’. It’s not difficult to see why chalk downland was regarded as an ideal site for the budding leucippotomist. Any vast ‘whale back’ expanse of downland suddenly becomes a huge canvas and it is perhaps this feature (or lack of ) which partly explains the relative absence of figures on the Kent Downs. The charactersitic steeper, undulating and comparitively more wooded nature of the North Downs escarpment would have perhaps posed more of a problem for even the most frustrated of cheeky chalk carvers.

The Kent Downs are however complemented with two large crosses at Lenham and Shoreham created after the First and Second World Wars and bearing testament to the men who made the ultimate sacrifice. Perhaps the more familiar carving though is the large crown carved on Wye Downs which commemorates the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902 and was restored by Wye college students between 1990 and 1995. The crown is situated above the village of Wye and can be visited on foot.