THE origins of the Broad Town White Horse are somewhat confused.

Located three miles south of Wootton Bassett, the horse is on a steep slope on land belonging to Littletown Farm. According to documents written by Reverend Plenderleath in 1885, it was cut in 1864 by was the owner of Littletown Farm, William Simmonds.

Another story tells of a letter sent to the local paper by a curator at the Imperial War Museum in 1919. The curator stated that as a child in 1863, he scoured the horse with a friend and that the horse was around 50 years old at that time.

This would have meant the Broad Town horse was created around 1813, 51 years earlier than in the previous story.

Whatever its past, the horse's future is in safe hands. It is now looked after by the Broad Town White Horse Restoration Society, which was formed in 1991.

The society restored the badly neglected horse in 1991 and continues to scour it on a regular basis.

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