Rewriting the origin story of the Vale of the White Horse

Steven Herbert

Dec 01, 2024

Transcript

During the last episode of The Beehive Yourself Show, I was somewhat disappointed that the confluence of the Ock and Thames was devoid of contemporary folklore. This is not to say the River Ock isn't sacred, and whilst I cannot say that this watercourse is an entity with a consciousness, it does bear life within it, and makes life possible around it.

The river Ock is self-contained within the Vale of the White Horse administrativeration area - it's the Vale's very own river. It meanders west to east, that is to say from Little Coxwell (near Farringdon) to its confluence with the Thames at Abingdon. The river is mostly fed (but not exclusively) from springs emanating along the foot of the Berkshire Downs. This watercourse and its tributaries create an important riparian network across the valley. Yet, one wonders why our district is not called the Vale of the River Ock?

1974 County reorganisation

During the 1974 local government reorganisation, Berkshire lost the valley to Oxfordshire, along with White Horse Hill which isn't in the valley. This on the face of it seems illogical, but the rationale was that because the White Horse is in the parish of Uffington - even though the village is in the valley and the Horse isn't, one had to come with the other.

Maybe it solved a naming problem for the bureaucrats because the neighbouring district is called South Oxfordshire, so they had to come up with something else. Given half a chance the men in grey suits would have abolished counties, and given all of England's administrative districts identity numbers.

Nonetheless, I have a better reason for the name: maybe a more sacred reason; a reason that feels organic; a reason with a deeper meaning; a reason which might give you a feeling of belonging and identity to the place that we call the Vale of the White Horse.

Woolstone wells

Stand on the tarmacked lane which passes directly below the White Horse, and you will see the majestic vista of the Vale. Looking north and downwards, you see a steep drop into a gorge, contained on three sides with steep, wavy embankments. The gorge below, called The Manger, leads northward to a bend in road, beyond which is woodland. The woodland sits in a depression (although you wouldn't think so); a continuation of The Manger. According to the Ordnance Survey maps, there are at least four springs that emerge in this wood, and these are called the Woolstone wells. And The White Horse uncannily stares directly towards them.

The White Horse gave birth to these springs, from which a stream meanders north. Though for the benefit of the pedantics out there, it would be more accurate to say fissures in an aquifer under the downs, in the vicinity of White Horse Hill, caused the up-shoot of water. Importantly, they are some of the headsprings of the River Ock.

Spiritual journey

I feel that our downland chalk geoglyph along with Dragon Hill, Uffington Castle, The Manger, and the Ridgeway, are more than just historically significant. For many people coming here, these are spiritual lands, especially if you include Wayland Smithy which is not far away. Throughout the year countless visitors come. Some at the break of dawn to observe the summer solstice. Some go to Dragon Hill and perform rituals. Many don't have any real motive for coming to the White Horse, many don't know what they are meant to be seeing. Yet, many of these travellers who I have struck-up conversations with say, with some frequency, that they have just been to Stonehenge, or Avebury, or Glastonbury. My pet theory is that these people are unwitting pilgrims: they are on a spiritual journey and they just don't know it.

Most visitors will know nothing of these springs, and only a few will venture to the villages of Woolstone or Uffington. I believe our ancestors recognised these springs as being holy, and it is no coincidence that there is a church nearby.

The Woolstone stream meanders north: passing through the villages of Woolstone and Uffington before going under the railway, and then joining the river Ock just north of Moor Mill Farm. The Ock, as many of my listeners know, travels eastward to join the Thames at Abingdon - this confluence should be another sacred place, and was once a sacred place, though not so much nowadays.

Origin story rewritten

Nonetheless, I think we can piece together an allegorical origin story for the Vale of the White Horse - here's my take. St George's stallion looses all of his shoes after slaying the dragon. The four springs (Woolstone Wells) represent four silver coins which George leaves by the side of The Manger, as payment to Wayland the blacksmith to shoe his charger. Yet, St George must continue his adventures overseas and leaves to board a barge at Abingdon. To save the White Horse from roaming away, he ties this creature with a loose silver rope which curves and zigzags from Woolstone, across the valley, to the banks of the Thames. Today, the White Horse watches over the Vale, waiting for St George's return.

I can hear my critics now saying: the Vale of the White Horse was the work of civil servants, who penned a boundary line on their map, making the district so.

However, the earliest record of Vale of the White Horse, or more accurately 'Vale de White Horse', dates to at least the 14th century. And nature seems to have the lent the bureaucrats a hand: The Vale is a district bordered by rivers on three sides (the river Thames and the river Cole) and the Berkshire Downs to the south.

Moreover, it is a place imbued with meaning and a deep history - The Vale of the White Horse was created by The White Horse. And so, it is a sacred, if not a mysterious place, and definitely not a bureaucratic contrivance.