15. THE WHITE HORSE
Forests, limestone crags, a brooding lake, gliders, and sweeping views over the Vale of York characterise this attractive, but rather over subscribed walk to one of Yorkshire's most famous landmarks, the White Horse of Kilburn. Also, (independently of the walk) we visit the charming little village of Kilburn, famous for its master craftsman woodcarver, Robert Thompson- the 'mouse man'.
Getting there: Follow A61,A168 or A19 to Thirsk.Take A170 Helmsley/ Scarborough Road. Beyond Sutton Under Whitestone Cliff the road ascends Sutton Bank. Park in spacious carpark at top of Sutton Bank by cafe, toilets, information centre etc.
Distance: 2.5 miles. Easy but busy!
Map Ref.:SE 516 813 (Horse) SE 516 831(Start) Outdoor Leisure 26
Rating: Walk *** (if quiet!). Follies & General Interest **
First the walk! From the carpark and information centre bear left and cross the main road at top of Sutton Bank. Walk down to the telescope and viewfinder and follow the obvious path along the edge of the cliff with fine views over Lake Gormire and across the Vale of York. Ignore The Cleveland Way leading off to Left and the descending path to right, (you will return that way!) and continue onwards, passing the glider club on the left. Bearing left along the top of Roulston Scar the track soon arrives at the eye of the White Horse .
Beyond the horse, descend right, down steep steps to the car park and notice below. Bear right,, and pass below the Horse to enter a wide track leading into the pine forest. From here an obvious (and well frequented!) path runs back below Roulston Scar before ascending Thiefs Highway to rejoin the outward path on the cliff top. From here retrace your steps along the Cleveland Way to the Information Centre and Car Park.
The White Horse is not strictly a folly, but no-one would deny that it is a 'curiosity in the landscape', and as such merits a place in this book. Located in the Hambleton Hills, it is a landmark for miles around, being visible from as far afield as Rombalds Moor and Garrowby Hill. It can be seen from three other follies in this book:- Harlow Hill, The Druids Temple and Hackfall. The walk to it is easy, well developed and a must for all Yorkshiremen. The only problem is that if you want the place to yourself you would be well advised to visit it on a wet monday in January, as the White Horse Walk in summer is a tourist attraction which tends to be as popular as Malham Cove or Blackpool's Golden Mile!!
I found little scope for originality. The walk followed in this book is essentially a clone of the one you will find in the AA Book of Countryside Walks, or the 'White Horse Walk' information sheet, for the fact is there is no better route to the White Horse. If by some freak chance you are lucky enough to catch this walk 'off peak', you will find a walk which is pleasant, scenic and rich in fascination. Perhaps, sitting alone above a high limestone crag, watching the ripples on a Lake Gormire the colour of the leaden sky, you will hear on the wind the whispers of ancient legend, and the romance which I sensed, but could not find amidst the clicking cameras and gaudy anoraks, will be yours for the taking.
The White Horse Walk starts at the top of Sutton Bank where there is a telescope and a view indicator. The view is phenomenal. From this escarpment edge 981 ft. above sea level, you can, subject to weather, see the Pennine Dales, the Yorkshire Wolds and York Minster. Below, the Vale is a patchwork quilt of arable fields stretching as far as the eye can see. Near at hand, below on the immediate right, is the curious Lake Gormire, surrounded by trees, and faintly reminiscent of the Broomlee Lough which lies beneath Hotbank Crags on Hadrian's Wall. Gormire has neither inlet nor outflow and is, according to the geologists, a product of the last glaciation. The lake is aloof, mysterious, the sort of place you would expect Bedivere to throw Excalibur into. It seems a mystical place, the sort of place you would be not surprised to find legends attached to. You would be right!
According to one legend, the Lake is bottomless; and according to another it contains a sunken village with church & spire, whose muffled bells can sometimes be heard ringing beneath the dark waters. The most persistant legend however concerns a White Mare. (Which is not associated with the Kilburn Horse!) On wild moonlit nights it is claimed that ghostly hooves can be heard thundering towards the scarp edge, followed by the chilling scream of a rider falling over the cliff. According to one popular account the falling rider is the ghost of a knight, Harry De Scriven, who, not content with his own famous black barbary stallion jealously coveted the white arab mare of the Abbot of Rievaulx. One wild night he encountered the Abbot in a wayside inn, and thinking him drunk decided to take advantage of the situation. Inventing a tale about a dying farmer in need of help, Harry offered to lend the Abbot his black stallion, and having swopped horses the two men rode off into the night. They had not gone very far however when poor Harry suddenly realised that the horse could not be controlled by him, and was bolting as if pursued by all the demons of hell. The terrified horse with its unwilling rider soon overtook the Abbot, and Harry suddenly saw to his horror that the horse was carrying him to the cliff edge. Hearing a mocking laugh behind him, Harry turned in the saddle, and just as the horse went over the edge he saw the Abbot, transfigured into none other than the Devil himself!!!
This is one version. Another account says that the White Mare was carrying a young girl; another says the Devil rode the horse over the cliff, Lake Gormire being formed by the crater he made when he hit the ground! The cliff behind is known as White Mare Crag and on the A170 is White Mare Corner. One theory suggests that 'White Mare' is nothing more than a corruption of 'White Mere' and simply refers to Gormire itself. I doubt this. The symbolism and imagery in the various legends point towards a pre Christian origin. The Britons worshipped the horse and held it to be sacred (which is why the British still refuse to eat horse flesh!), and the 'White Mare' was associated with the Moon Goddess. In Roman times the mare was identified the Gaulish goddess Epona (who was also associated with geese, being the source of all the 'Mother Goose'stories!). The legend of Lady Godiva, the nursery rhyme 'ride a cock horse' and the word 'pony' all have their origins in this ancient cult. The black stallion, the association with death and the devil also fit into the picture. The black horse symbolised the moon goddess in her dark phase- The 'night mare' or the dobby (again words that have passed into the common language.'Dobby' becoming 'dobbin'). The same religious ideas were endemic to all Indo-Aryan peoples, (to which group the Celts belonged) so it should not be too surprising to find that ancient Britons had beliefs not unlike those of Hinduism. (Re-incarnation for example, which created a British contempt for death which was to cost the Romans dear!) Our 'night mare' equates with the Hindu Moon Goddess, who in her dark aspect is the loathesome Kali, the Hindu goddess of death. Celtic moon worship was matriarchal in nature, and no doubt it was left to later peoples to turn a black mare into a black stallion, a suitable mount for an Odin, or a Nikkr who in turn, with his satanic handsomeness, one eye and black cowl would become the prototype for 'owd Nick' - the Divvle himself!!
Many greater people than the Divvle have since toiled up the tortuous coils of the road which leads up Sutton Bank. (A mile long with four gradients of one in five!) John Wesley came this way, and recorded in his journal an account of the huge rock fall which broke away from the cliff with a thunderous rumble one day in 1775. The young William Wordsworth also came here with his sister Dorothy on the way to his wedding at Brompton, near Scarborough in July 1802. He must have liked the view, for he paused here again some months later on his way to Thirsk and took the trouble to write a rather flowery verse about it:-
'I turn and view thy awful heights
Stupendous HAMBLETON! thy dreadful wilds,
Thy gilded cliffs and blue expanded sides
at once infusing horror and delight!'
The walk to the White Horse is a fine promenade along the scarp, with the added diversion of the glider field on the left, where we can watch intrepid flyers being towed up into the hazy blue yonder. Geologically the area has a character of its own- The crags hereabouts are of a yellowish corallian limestone, quite different from the white carboniferous limestone of the Pennine Dales. On our way towards Roulston Scar our path crosses a line of dikes, possibly once part of a line of Iron Age defences, although you will have to look hard to find any noticeable trace. Below, on the right, is the tree clothed bulwark of Hood Hill, where, legend informs us, the ubiquitous Robin Hood fought his last battle, and where in earlier times, druids carried out sacrifices in sacred groves. Here again, old beliefs raise their heads. 'Hood' is a corruption of 'Hod' which is but a variation of the more familiar Odin or Woden.
The top of Roulston Scar is not a place for the light headed. The dangers of this awesome precipice are appallingly obvious.At the base of the scar is a cave, appropriately known as the Devil's Parlour, which may be reached from the bottom path by those skilled in jungle warfare. A short stroll along the path, and suddenly we are standing behind the eye of the White Horse.
Seen at close quarters, the White Horse is something of a disappointment. The eye is little more than a circle of grass surrounded by chalk chippings. Warning signs entreat the walker to 'keep off' the horse, and a steep path descends down steps to a carpark below, from where a more identifiable view of the figure may be obtained.
The White Horse was carved out of the hillside in 1857 by Thomas Taylor of Kilburn, who, inspired by the famous White Horse at Uffington, decided to finance the construction of his own 'White Horse'. Taylor was associated with his brother in a London grocery business which specialised in Yorkshire Hams and Bacon. Thomas seems to have done the 'travelling' for the business, and is reputed to have been at the festivities associated with the 'scouring' of the Uffington Horse on Sepember the 17th & 18th of that same year.Taylor recruited thirty three local men to carve out the figure, the whole project being completed by November 4th 1857. It must have been quite an affair. The village schoolmaster, Mr. John Hodgson, declared a day's holiday, and both master and pupils assisted the workmen who were cutting out the horse. Hodgson had apparently been given the task of drawing the outline of the horse, and appears to have been responsible for directing most of the operation.
A doggerel verse tells the story of the cutting:-
'So he took his scale and compass saying "I'll do my best to try
To make the horse quite big enough my friend to satisfy."
And when the place was finished and everything complete
He looked around the scholars sitting on the seaet
And called upon John Rowley, the biggest of the lot,
Saying "Please do come and help to measure out the plot."
They put in little stobbs and left them fair in sight
To guide the men who cut the sods to do the work aright.
Then thirty men of Kilburn, accustomed to the spade,
All went to work so heartily that soon the plot was made.
The school was closed upon that day and those who missed their play
Climbed up the hill to help the men to throw the sods away.
November 1857 the White Horse first was seen,
Dressed in a brand new coat of lime which made him white and clean.
A little girl when passing by in great amazement said,
"O dad how will they stable him when he's to go to bed?"
From Brafferton and Boroughbridge and far off Wetherby
And right from York and Harrogate the White Horse you could see.
And scores of other places; and people in the train
when passing to and fro can see him very plain.
And stand upon his back on the hill so steep and high,
And every year eight men do go
To cut the weeds off as they grow
For if he but neglected be
There would not be a horse to see,
And when the lime is washed away
Instead of white it turns to grey
So now and then there comes a time
The White Horse needs a coat of lime.'
The only hill figure of its kind in Northern England, the White Horse is in fact, as the poem indicates, an old roan! Most hill figures are formed by cutting out the surface turf to reveal the white chalk bedrock underneath. Unfortunately the underlying rock of the Hambletons is not a white chalk but a murky yellowish brown limestone so consequently the horse needs a continual supply of imported chalk chippings to keep it white! When the horse was first cut, more than six tons of lime was used to whiten it. Within a very short time downhill erosion and people walking on the horse had begun to distort the outline, and in 1896 it was almost obliterated in a rainstorm. As a result the horse has to be continually redefined and whitened. Initially the task was funded by Mr. Taylor, but with his eventual emigration to Australia other sources of funding had to be found. No traditional celebrations accompanied the 'grooming', but there is a story of the horse being whitewashed with 'lime and beer'.The process continues, for the horse constantly keeps losing its shape and colour, but mercifully there is now a registered charity set up to ensure that it is kept properly groomed, and this, combined with its present status as a major tourist attraction will ensure its survival well into the next century..
There are obviously no ancient legends relating to the Horse, but there is a modern mystery! How big is it?? No-one seems to agree!! Here are a few examples of the confusion:-
No Through Road:- 314ft long by 228 ft. high
Rhea. North Yorks Moors:- 315ft long by 228 ft. high
Plenderleath:- 40ft long by 30 ft. high
Marples- White Horses 304ft long by 228 ft. high
Hartley & Ingleby- 180ft long by 80 ft. high
Perhaps the real answer is that the dimensions alter minimally with each 'grooming' (although that doesn't excuse Plenderleath!). At the time of my visit large amounts of chalk chippings were being spread over the horse by a party of volunteers, and the horse was visibly bulging at the point where the chalk was being piled up prior to application.In the morning the horse was a dull grey. By mid afternoon he was brilliant white once more.
The walk now runs below the crags, a pleasant walk through woodlands eventually ascending back to the top of Sutton Bank by way of Thief's Highway. Kilburn Village lies a mile down the road. If you are intrepid you will brave the tarmac down to the village and afterwards retrace your steps back to the horse. If not- well you can always drive down there in the car!
Kilburn is a lovely village. The first thing you will notice on arrival is the tiny little doll's house of a cottage which stands to the right of the lane. In some places you will see timber stacked for seasoning. This is hardly surprising, as Kilburn was the home of the famous woodcarver Robert Thompson, the 'Mouse Man', who now slumbers in Kilburn Churchyard, but whose workshops still attract visitors from far and wide.
Robert Thompson was born at the Old Hall in Kilburn on May 7th 1876. His father (predictably enough) was a joiner and the local wheelwright.Thompson attended the village school and in his 'teens was apprenticed to an engineering firm in Cleckheaton (Thompson was to call it his 'five years of penal servitude!'). Travelling between Cleckheaton and Kilburn, Thompson would frequently stop to admire the magnificent oak choir stalls in Ripon Cathedral, which had been carved in the Middle Ages by a master carver named William Bromflett. Thomson was inspired by this work and dreamed of being able to re-create the artistry of that golden age of craftsmanship. At twenty he forsook engineering and returned to Kilburn to work in his father's shop. Here he made coffins and cartwheels and dreamed of the day when he might become a specialist woodcarver.
His first church commission came in 1919 when he made a pulpit for Yearsley Church and not long afterwards came his first big 'break', the chance to carve a large crucifix for the Roman Catholic cemetery at Ampleforth Abbey and College.The crucifix was to be carved in oak, and Thompson had no idea where he could get it.He roamed the countryside until he eventually found a gale uprooted oak on Brenk Hill Farm near Coxwold. Thompson bought the tree and cut it as it lay, the beams being carted off to his workshop. The Ampleforth order was a success and established his reputation and soon other commissions followed, it not being long before he was (quite literally) carving out a career for himself.
Thompson's trademark was his famous 'mouse' which appears on all his church woodwork. By all accounts it originated in the 1920's whilst he and aother carver named Charlie Barker were working on a huge cornice for a church screen. Charlie happened to make some remark about being 'poor as a church mouse' and Thompson jokingly responded by carving a real 'church mouse' on the cornice. The mouse stuck. Thompson realised it would make an endearing trademark, and used it as such thereafter. When quizzed by the vicar as to its meaning, Thompson replied that it symbolised 'industry in a quiet place'. 'Nay man', the vicar replied, 'it means destruction.'
Robert Thompson carved wood into old age, and was still carving at the age of 79, dying on December 11th 1955. His work may be seen in 700 cathedrals and churches including Westminster Abbey and York Minster.His 'mouse' may be found in schools, colleges, council chambers and even on furniture in country pubs! Thompson's business continues today, although one suspects that the old man, who once called back a collection of chairs because they weren't made from English oak, must be rather a hard act to follow.
Kilburn is a village of ancient lineage. Its name first appears in the following Domesday entry:-
"In Chileburne Archil had 6 carucates of land to be taxed. Land to 3
ploughs. Hugh, son of Baldric has now there 1 villane and two ploughs."
No doubt Archil also had a church there, but the present church of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not built until around 1120. Since then the church has been added to by successive incumbents. The North Aisle dates from 1170-80 and the tower from 1667. The whole church was 'restored' in 1818. As one would expect, them church contains a substantial amount of Thompson woodcarving. Items of interest in the church include a 'Breeches Bible' from 1601 (the text describes Adam covering his nakedness with breeches rather than the usual figleaf!), and two fine 13th century graveslabs, one of which depicts an Abbot of Byland or a Prior of Newburgh, and the other which shows the shield and fighting hammer of the said cleric's 'Champion', who, (priests not being allowed to fight) would settle disputes on his patron's behalf in the Norman Trial by Combat. We are, in effect looking at the grave of a mediaeval 'minder'!
Kilburn is the home of a rural community, and has some unusual traditions. New Year's Day sees children touring the village in search of tips or tit-bits. This is known as lucky birding. Oak leaves are worn on Royal Oak Day (May 29th), but Kilburn is best known for its Feast which is essentially a midsummer festival (St John the Baptist's Day), being governed by the first Sunday after July 6th. The Feast lasts four days (Saturday to Tuesday) and the festivities reach a climax on the Tuesday where a 'Lord Mayor' accompanied by heavily rouged transvestite 'Lady Mayoress' tour the village in a decorated 'coach' drawn by a 'coachman'. The 'Mayor' inflicts small fines on householders and proclaims his authority for a year and a day while the 'Mayoress' embraces and kisses any ladies he can get his hands on! Needless to say, everyone finishes up in the Forester's Arms, and the celebrations terminate with the singing of a strange song about 'Old Grimy' which is (not surprisingly in view of what we have already mentioned about the area) a corruption of 'Grim' - another name for Odin.
Retracing our steps to the Horse we rejoin the 'tourist trod' and proceed up Thief's Highway back to the carpark at Sutton Bank. If you have the time and the energy further well-defined trails lead off in the opposite direction towards Lake Gormire (full information and guided walks available at Tourist Information Centre). All in all an attractive, scenic and interesting walk- but you won't find me on it, I've gone into hiding!!
