Exploring Chiltern Hills and the Vale of White Horse About Vale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse , situated between
Wantage, a modest market town about thirty miles west of Henley, and
Faringdon, seventeen miles southwest of Oxford, is a shallow valley,
whose fertile farmland is studded with tiny villages. It takes its name
from the prehistoric figure carved into the chalk downs above two of
its smaller hamlets - Uffington and Woolstone . Carved
in the first century BC, the horse is the most conspicuous of a string
of prehistoric remains that dot the downs and include burial mounds and
Iron Age forts. The Ridgeway National Trail , running along -
or near - the top of the downs, links several of these sites and offers
wonderful, breezy views over the Vale. Originally a prehistoric
footpath, the Ridgeway was long used as a drove road, with sheep taken
over the downs to market. Nowadays, horses are more common, the
well-drained turf providing an ideal training ground for racehorses.
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