Westbury and the White Horse

Another town walk with Merv, starting at the Old (i.e. former) Town Hall. It was built in 1815 at the expense of Sir M M Lopez. It was nicely restored (Pevsner) in 1972-3 when shops were inserted behind the columns.

Then to the church of All Saints, in the Perpendicular style but much renewed (Pevsner again).

The West end is unusually dramatic for a parish church. It dates from 1847.

Soon after we found ourselves in the former Angel Mill, now flats. It dates from the late 18th century.

Then on the opposite side of the road the Laverton Institute of 1873, now the Town Council offices. It was was designed to "provide a place for educational, religious, philanthropic, scientific and political purposes".

Further along the road was a real surprise: this arrangement of houses forming a square open at the bottom, with the houses along the sides rigorously symmetrical. A plaque revealed that it was built by Abraham Lavington in 1869 for workers evicted for voting for him in an election. This helped the campaign for the Secret Ballot Act which came into operation in 1872.

Even more interesting to me were the set of seven Almshouses at the top of the slope.

The central plaque reveals that "These seven houses were designated as Almshouses for the use of old or disabled factory operatives and their widows". The benefactor was William Henry Laverton in memory of his his late uncle Abraham Laverton, November 27 1876.

To conclude our exploration we headed out of town to see the famous White Horse. We parked at a view point and then walked a mile or so along the road and then up onto the ridge and along it. Here is the Horse, becoming clearer as we got closer through the haze.

When we got right up close we found a shocking discovery. The Horse is thought to date from as early as 1742 and it is shown on a map of 1773, with a later version said to have been cut by a Mr Gee in 1778 (all this from a helpful information panel). Now for the shock. In the mid 1950s it was concreted over to prevent the overgrowth of grass and in 2012 volunteers gave it a makeover as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. This is what it looks like now. Awful!

Just beyond the White Horse are the impressive earthworks of an Iron Age hill fort known as Bratton castle.

We headed back to the car and left for our second destination of the day: Farleigh Hungerford Castle.