WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 - This is the Uffington White Horse 2 00:00:02.150 --> 00:00:05.020 and it is somewhere around 3,000 years old. 3 00:00:05.020 --> 00:00:06.730 It was carved into this hill in Oxfordshire 4 00:00:06.730 --> 00:00:08.610 before the British isles had written history, 5 00:00:08.610 --> 00:00:11.910 so we have no idea who made it, or why. 6 00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:14.570 And until humanity invented aircraft millennia later, 7 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:16.520 no one could even really see it properly. 8 00:00:16.520 --> 00:00:18.600 The view from the ground here isn't great. 9 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:20.420 We're also not allowed to fly a drone over it, 10 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:22.120 so you're going to have to make do with a satellite photo 11 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:23.440 to see the whole thing. 12 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.990 This is a 3,000 year old piece of art. 13 00:00:26.990 --> 00:00:30.513 And I am now going to smash part of it with this hammer. 14 00:00:32.690 --> 00:00:34.890 - We're smashing the chalk into the figure of the Horse today 15 00:00:34.890 --> 00:00:37.940 to preserve its appearance and keep its longevity 16 00:00:37.940 --> 00:00:40.130 as people have done for the last 3,000 years, 17 00:00:40.130 --> 00:00:41.280 otherwise it wouldn't be here. 18 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.620 We're taking new chalk from the quarry just behind me, 19 00:00:43.620 --> 00:00:46.440 about 50 metres away, 10 tonnes in all. 20 00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:49.830 And yes, that's being applied to the Horse by the use of a club hammer. 21 00:00:49.830 --> 00:00:51.640 Before that though, the Horse is weeded, 22 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:53.740 or "scoured" for the old traditional term, 23 00:00:53.740 --> 00:00:55.630 so we can get on to the best surface. 24 00:00:55.630 --> 00:00:58.470 We rechalk and scour the Horse every year now. 25 00:00:58.470 --> 00:01:02.060 They're all volunteers. Previous years have been years of neglect, 26 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:05.283 maybe 20, 25 years, but traditionally, 27 00:01:05.283 --> 00:01:07.110 back in Victorian times every seven years. 28 00:01:07.110 --> 00:01:08.537 But we're proud of the Horse here, 29 00:01:08.537 --> 00:01:11.280 and we want to keep it looking its best as long as we can. 30 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.780 Oxford University, back in the 1990s, 31 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:17.160 came out with a newly developed sensor back then, 32 00:01:17.160 --> 00:01:19.890 which was able to determine the last time sunlight 33 00:01:19.890 --> 00:01:23.350 touched the bottom of the trenches on which the Horse is founded. 34 00:01:23.350 --> 00:01:27.430 And that put it to what we know today, 3,000 years ago. 35 00:01:27.430 --> 00:01:30.370 This is by far the oldest chalk figure in the country, 36 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:31.900 nothing else comes anywhere near it. 37 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:34.650 We don't know for sure about how the Horse was put in, 38 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:36.360 or for what reason. 39 00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:38.220 We imagine that there might have been a wooden tower 40 00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:41.410 constructed from which the seer would be able to direct 41 00:01:41.410 --> 00:01:44.070 "left, right, missed a bit," that kind of thing. 42 00:01:44.070 --> 00:01:46.701 Part of the mystery or the enigma of the White Horse Hill 43 00:01:46.701 --> 00:01:49.500 is what makes it so appealing to people that come. 44 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:51.140 You can use your own imagination. 45 00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:52.890 What would happen if we didn't chalk the Horse? 46 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:55.660 I think it would grow over within 20 or 30 years. 47 00:01:55.660 --> 00:01:57.740 That's what we say to the people who've been kind enough 48 00:01:57.740 --> 00:01:59.070 to come along today and help us; 49 00:01:59.070 --> 00:02:01.840 is they're actually contributing to living history here. 50 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:04.557 Without that human intervention, it would grass over 51 00:02:04.557 --> 00:02:07.333 25, 30 years, and be lost forever. 52 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:10.300 - This is art that's been preserved 53 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:12.820 by generation after generation after generation after generation. 54 00:02:12.820 --> 00:02:15.500 Repair and upkeep that's been going on for millennia. 55 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.530 Through the Roman empire, the medieval period, 56 00:02:17.530 --> 00:02:19.230 a lot of invasions, the English Civil War, 57 00:02:19.230 --> 00:02:20.860 the formation of the United Kingdom; 58 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:22.900 all the way up to the Information Age. 59 00:02:22.910 --> 00:02:28.390 Every so often, groups of people have come together on this hill, to preserve this. 60 00:02:28.390 --> 00:02:31.980 It is a very real connection with the folks who came before us. 61 00:02:44.890 --> 00:02:46.340 Smashed it. 62 00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:49.153 Smashed it! ...nothing, just nothing.