The Osmington White Horse Restoration

Volunteers restore the White Horse

Volunteers work on restoring Dorset's White Horse carved into Osmington Hill. The famous horse can be seen driving into Weymouth and depicts George III on a horse. George III is a regular visitor to Weymouth and he calls it first resort. The hill figure is sculpted in 1808 into the limestone of the South Dorset Downs.

Not much is known about the persons or persons who created the hill sculpture. In Thomas Hardy's book The Trumpet Major it is said to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars. Controversy was caused in 1996 when the horse featured on the TV programme Challenge Anneka with Anneka Rice when white Portland Stone was brought in to whiten the horse. Some hill carvings have been found by archaeologists to date to prehistoric times although most are more modern representations.