Leucippotomy

Leucippotomy is the art of carving white horses in chalk upland areas, particularly as practised in southern England. The practice is apparently of prehistoric origin; the Uffington White Horse, near The Ridgeway, has been dated to between 1400 and 600 BC. The Uffington White Horse is the most famous and most ancient hill figure in England.^[1] The most recent may be the Folkestone White Horse, built in 2003 near the English opening of the Channel Tunnel.^[2]

The practice of cutting human hill figures is known as gigantotomy. Examples in the British Isles of uncertain but probably modern origin include the Cerne Abbas giant and the Long Man of Wilmington.^[3]

There are 16 known white horse hill figures in the UK, or 17 including the painted one at Cleadon Hills. There is also a recently discovered crop-like figure at Whittlesford resembling a horse, thus making 18.

The Luzley White Horse, cut in the 1980s, is not completely lost, as some of it can still be seen, although it is no longer maintained.

Contents 1 List of UK figures 1.1 Current figures 1.2 Lost figures 1.3 Possible figures 2 Drawings gallery 3 Photo gallery 4 See also 5 Bibliography 6 References

List of UK figures

Current figures

Name	County	Cutting date
Uffington White Horse	Oxfordshire	1000 BC
Westbury White Horse	Wiltshire	1778
Cherhill White Horse	Wiltshire	1780
Mormond White Horse	Aberdeenshire	1790s
Marlborough White Horse	Wiltshire	1804
Osmington White Horse	Dorset	1808
Alton Barnes White Horse	Wiltshire	1812
Hackpen White Horse	Wiltshire	1838
Woolbury White Horse	Hampshire	Before 1846
Kilburn White Horse	North Yorkshire	1857
Broad Town White Horse	Wiltshire	1864
Cleadon White Horse	South Tyneside	Before 1887
Litlington White Horse	Sussex	1924
Pewsey White Horse	Wiltshire	1937
Devizes White Horse	Wiltshire	1999
Heeley White Horse	Yorkshire	2000
Folkestone White Horse	Kent	2003

Lost figures

Name	County	Cut	Lost	Replaced by
Old Westbury White Horse	Wiltshire	878?	Before 1778	New Westbury White Horse
Old Pewsey White Horse	Wiltshire	1785	1940	New Pewsey White Horse
Pistone Hill White Horse	Buckinghamshire	1809?	Before 1990	-
Old Litlington White Horse	Sussex	1838	1924	New Litlington White Horse
Old Devizes White Horse	Wiltshire	1845	Before 1999	New Devizes White Horse
Inkpen White Horse	Wiltshire	1868?	Before 1990	-
Hindhead White Horse	Surrey	Before 1913	1939	-
Rockley White Horse	Wiltshire	Discovered 1948	After 1950, Before 1990	-
Tan Hill White Horse/Donkey	Wiltshire	Before 1975	After 1975, Before 1990	-
Luzley White Horse	Greater Manchester	1980s	2009	-
Folkestone White Horse mock-up	Kent	1999	1999	Folkestone White Horse

Possible figures

Name	County	Discovery date	Note
Whittlesford White Horse	Cambridge	2004	A crop mark resembling a horse discovered 2004, possibly hinting a previous horse was cut here.
Liddington White Horse	Wiltshire	2000s	Plans for this white horse (including designs) occurred in the 2000s, but the project never happened.

Drawings gallery

Photo gallery

See also

• Hill figure
• White horse (mythology)

Bibliography

• Plenderleath, Rev. W. C., On the White Horses of Wiltshire and Its Neighbourhood (Wilts Archaeological & Nat. Hist. Magazine, vol. 14, pp. 12–30)
• Plenderleath, Rev. W. C., White Horses of the West of England (London: Allen & Storr, 1892)
• Marples, Morris, White Horses & Other Hill Figures (London: Country Life Ltd, 1949; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949)
• Huntingford , G. W. B., 'The Scouring of the White Horse' in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1957), pp. 105–114

References

1. ^ Plenderleath, Rev. W. C. (1892). The White Horses of the West of England. Pub. Allen & Storr, London.
2. ^ Folkestone White Horse on The Hillfigure Homepage accessed July 16, 2007
3. ^ Bergamar, Kate (1997). Discovering Hill Figures. Pub. Shire. ISBN 0-7478-0345-5.