Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

The White Horse hill figure 170m NNE of Uffington Castle on Whitehorse Hill

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008413
Date first listed:: 13-Dec-1929

User submitted image — Uploaded by Paul Adams This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Also of interest

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008413
Date first listed:: 13-Dec-1929
Date of most recent amendment:: 05-Dec-1995

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Oxfordshire
District:: Vale of White Horse (District Authority)
Parish:: Uffington
National Grid Reference:: SU 30117 86633

Reasons for Designation

Prehistoric hill figures are large scale depictions of some kind of symbol, design or motif, generally in animal form, created by cutting away turf and subsoil to create a visual contrast with the surrounding grassland. They are usually best seen from some distance away, or from the air. All examples are believed to have originated in the Iron Age but the appearance of some has been altered in later periods. Some examples remain as obvious white figures in chalk or limestone. Those that have not been maintained may be recognised either as slight earthworks or as soilmarks in dry periods. Prehistoric hill figures are often interpreted as religious symbols, perhaps representing gods or totems. Very few prehistoric hill figures have been recorded and all surviving examples are regarded as nationally important.

The Uffington White Horse is one of the best known and striking examples of its class and has been shown by recent geophysical survey to have undergone a number of changes during its life. It forms part of an unusual group of prehistoric and later monuments which, taken as a whole, will provide a rare insight into the religious and secular use of the landscape over nearly four thousand years.

Details

The monument includes the chalk cut hill figure of a horse known as the `White Horse' situated 170m NNE of Uffington Castle on Whitehorse Hill. The figure occupies a thirty degree angled west facing slope which can be seen from a distance of several miles.

The monument appears as the side view of a stylised horse with its head to the right. The horse measures c.111m in length from tail to ear and c.40m high. At its head there is a feature which is known as the `beak' and this has been shown by recent geophysical survey to have been altered quite considerably in shape. The horse was consolidated as it now appears in 1936 and spent a short period covered over during World War II, to prevent enemy pilots from using it as a navigational aid.

The first documentary record of the horse is from the 12th century when it was made clear that the area had become known as White Horse Hill in the reign of William I (1066-1087). The horse is associated with St George and the Dragon in local tradition, hence the name of the nearby Dragon Hill. Although the horse could be Anglo-Saxon in origin, it is more generally believed to be Iron Age in date, making it contemporary with the hillfort to the south. A scouring festival, every seven years, was practised from at least 1677 until the late 18th century. The origin of this festival may go back to the original creation of the monument.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 21785
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Clayton, P, Archaeological Sites of Britain, (1976), 76-77
Grinsell, L V, Archaeology of Wessex, (1958)
Other
Ancient Monuments Terrier, HBMC , Uffington Castle, White Horse and Dragon Hill, (1984)
Description of monuments, Grinsell, L V, White Horse Hill, (1939)
Discussion of monuments and folklore, POCOCK., The Mystery of White Horse Hill, (1965)
OXON PRN 7302, C.A.O., HILL FIGURE - WHITE HORSE, (1990)
With S. Palmer, JEFFERY, P.P., DISCUSSION ON SITE, (1993)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.