BECAUSE much of the landscape around Devizes is chalk downland, local people have often chosen to commemorate a special event by cutting out a figure on a prominent escarpment, allowing the underlying calcium carbonate to show through.

So have emerged the Wiltshire White Horses, of which there are currently eight. It is thought they were based on the Uffington White Horse, in Oxfordshire, which recent research has found dates back to the Bronze Age, about 2800BC.

It is thought the first Wiltshire White Horse was cut on Bratton Down, near Westbury, to commemorate King Alfred's victory over the Danes at Ethandune (modern-day Edington) in 878 AD. But it was re-cut in 1778 by the steward to Lord Abingdon.

The other horses in the area include those at Alton Barnes (1812), Broad Town (1864), Cherhill (1780), Hackpen (1838), Marlborough (1804), and Pewsey (1937).

A horse was cut by shoemakers' apprentices in 1845 on Roundway Down, Devizes, just below a prehistoric earthwork known as Oliver's Castle, but it has since disappeared. In 1999, a committee was formed to cut a Devizes White Horse to commemorate the Millennium and farmer Chris Combe gave permission for it to be cut in one of his fields overlooking the town.

A working party of local volunteers got together in September 1999 to cut the outline of the horse. It proved to be the wettest weekend of the summer but Devizes folk are not to be discouraged by a bit of wind and rain and the horse soon took shape.

A local building company undertook to dig out the body of the horse and fill it with chalk to create the bold stallion.

To visit the Devizes Millennium White Horse, take the A361 Swindon road and turn off at Folly Road towards Roundway Village. In the village turn right at the phone box and drive up the hill. Park at the Leipzig plantation and the White Horse is on the field on your right.