{"id":44140,"title":"The Red Horse of Tysoe: Revealed!","description":"The Red Horse of Tysoe was a large hill figure, first recorded in 1607, but sadly lost to time... until now!","content":"

The Red Horse of Tysoe<\/strong> was a large hill figure located in the parish of Tysoe, South Warwickshire, England, near the Edgehill escarpment. It was recorded as early as 1607, but is now sadly lost to time.<\/p>

\"young<\/u>Red Horse of Tysoe Top<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Carved into red clay, the Horse gave its name to the surrounding Vale of Red Horse. Its origin is debated, with dates ranging from Anglo-Saxon times onwards. Over the centuries, the figure was recut multiple times, resulting in at least five<\/em> different versions, the last of which disappeared around 1910.<\/p>

In the 1960s, historians Kenneth Carrdus and Graham Miller used aerial surveys to identify the locations of the various Red Horse figures. They confirmed the original figure was about 285 feet long.<\/p>

Here at Eldon Threads<\/strong> HQ, we had wanted to add the Red Horse of Tysoe to our Eldon Threads<\/strong> Chalk Hill Collection<\/u><\/a> for some time, but as anyone who has researched these matters will discover soon enough, there are vanishingly few images of the original Red Horse. I say few, there's basically just one. It's a reconstruction created by Carddus and Miller based their research in the 1960's. Being mindful of their considerable efforts, and also their copyright, we thought instead we might embark on a little research of our own in the hope of finding some image or a more detailed description from other older sources that would be wholly in the public domain. We had no idea we would find something even more surprising!<\/p>

The story begins with the Horse itself. Once of the earliest mentions is in Camden's Britannia (1607) which says \"From the red soil hereabouts, [a village at the foot of Edghill] is call'd Rodway, or Rodley, and a great part of the Vale, the Vale of Red Horse, bearing that name from the figure of a great horse, cut by the country people in the side of the hill near Pillerton, out of red coloured earth.\"<\/p>

We found a later edition of Britannia which does indeed show the Vale of Red Horse on the map of Warwickshire.<\/p>

\"AWe found a few other mentions of the Red Horse here and there during our early investigations.<\/p>

The Rev. W. C. Plenderleath of course gives it a mention in his On The White Horses Of The West of England With Notices of some other Ancient Turf-Monuments<\/em>.<\/p>

He says 'Our country possesses, however, a Red Horse of no small fame, situate in the lordship of Tysoe, in Warwickshire, and giving its name to the Vale of Red Horse beneath. This is traditionally reported to have been cut in 1461, in memory of the exploits of Richard, Earl of Warwick, who was for many years one of the most prominent figures in the Wars of the Roses. The Earl had in the early part of the year found himself, with a force of forty thousand men, opposed to Queen Margaret, with sixty thousand, at a place called Towton, near Tadcaster. Overborne by numbers, the battle was going against him, when, dismounting from his horse, he plunged his sword up to the hilt in the animal\u2019s side, crying aloud that he would henceforth fight shoulder to shoulder with his men. Thereupon the soldiers, animated by their leader\u2019s example, rushed forward with such impetuosity that the enemy gave way and flew precipitately. No less than twenty-eight thousand Lancastrians are said to have fallen in this battle and in the pursuit which followed, for the commands of Prince Edward were to give no quarter. It was to this victory that the latter owed his elevation to the throne which took place immediately afterwards. The Red Horse used to be scoured every year upon Palm Sunday, at the expense of certain neighbouring landowners who held their land by that tenure, and the scouring is said to have been as largely attended, and to have been the occasion of as great festivity, as that of the older horse in the adjoining county of Berks. The figure is about 54 feet in extreme length, by about 31 in extreme height.'<\/p>

William Howitt mentions the Horse in his Visits to remarkable places; old halls, battlefields and scenes illustrative of striking passages in history and poetry<\/em>. He describes it as a 'rude figure of a horse cut in the turf of the hill side, showing the red marle of the hill, most probably in commemoration of some ancient battle, as the White Horse in the vale of the same name in Berkshire'.<\/p>

William Field in An historical and descriptive account of the town & castle of Warwick <\/em>states 'nearly opposite Tysoe church, rudely cut on the side of a hill, was, till lately, the figure of a horse : which, from the colour of the soil, was termed the red horse ; and the low grounds, adjacent, are still called the red horse vale.' He describes the scouring of the figure on Palm Sunday 'when the country people, who assisted in the ceremony, were usually regaled with cakes and ale.' He goes on - 'Lately, however, that obligation has been set aside; and the old figure of the horse has been obliterated. Another of the same form and dimensions has, indeed, since been cut ... but as the annual scouring is now become a mere matter of choice, it may be expected that this very ancient custom will soon disappear.'<\/p>

\"TheIt is pretty much established beyond any reasonable doubt that there were at least four or five Horses cut over time. We found some maps that mark the exact<\/em> location of whichever Red Horse was still in evidence at the time. The Ordnance Survey map series from 1830s-1880s marks one, as does the later series from 1888-1915. But by the time of the OS Quarter Inch, 3rd edition (1919-1923) I\u2019m guessing the last Red Horse must have vanished as it\u2019s no longer marked on any further OS maps I could find.<\/p>

We even checked on the Ordnance Survey Air Photo Mosaics. These photos were a temporary tool used to map the landscape at the end of the Second World War, until more up-to-date regular mapping could be produced. They show very detailed views of the landscapes and offer great resolution, but unfortunately they only cover about 20% of the British countryside. But would be lucky enough to find an early aerial photo of the area in question?<\/p>

Frustratingly - no. Where the regular OS maps marked the horse, the aerial mosaic was missing the crucial tile.<\/p>

\"TheSo, where now?<\/p>

Well, Kenneth Carrdus and Graham Miller were persuaded by a photograph of an area nearby called \u2018The Hangings\u2019. A grainy black and white photo from the 1960\u2019s appeared to show a faint outline of the original horse. As a result, they focussed their attention on that area, did some excavation, some aerial photography, and also a resistivity survey. They can, incidentally, also be seen discussing their theories many years later on the 1980\u2019s TV programme Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World<\/em> in an episode called \u2018Giants for the Gods\u2019 in which they take a helicopter flight over the now completely tree-covered hillside before concluding \u2018I don\u2019t think anybody will ever see it again\u2019. It\u2019s worth searching up on YouTube (skip to about 16 minutes in).<\/p>

\"MapBut here at Eldon Threads<\/strong>, we just thought we would dig a little deeper, so to speak, before giving up. As everyone seemed to agree that it was only the later<\/em> horses that were in the \u2018Sun Rising\u2019 area, while the older<\/em> ones were on \u2018The Hangings\u2019 we decided we would take another look there.<\/p>

When we went back to the Ordnance Survey Air Photos from 1944-1950 we were thrilled<\/em> to discover that they had indeed captured an image of \u2018The Hangings\u2019. There was a blank tile for the \u2018Sun Rising\u2019 hillside directly adjacent, but that didn\u2019t matter now. We were looking for the original \u2018Great Horse\u2019, and that was a little further south, and amazingly had<\/em> been captured by the aerial survey.<\/p>

The image immediately below shows the area we\u2019re interested in, and I\u2019ve added an overlay of the previous map. Old Lodge Farm is shown on the left, and the area known as \u2018The Hangings\u2019 is marked in the centre.<\/p>

\"AerialBut the million dollar question was now this - would we be able to see any evidence of the original horse on the 1940\u2019s photo?? [drum roll\u2026]<\/em><\/p>

The answer is YES<\/strong>!<\/p>

\"AerialI am amazed to say, when I looked at the aerial photo I could see the horse almost immediately. In exactly<\/em> the spot where Carrdus and Miller would be searching 20 years later! I have no idea if they were even aware that a 1940\u2019s aerial photo existed when they were carrying out their research, but to be fair, they didn\u2019t have the benefit of the internet back then. I doubt they had Photoshop either, to quickly adjust the levels, which was naturally enough the very<\/em> first thing I did!<\/p>

So, here is the same image adjusted using Photoshop (Image > Adjustments > Levels) to give us a little more contrast. I\u2019ve added a little outline, but otherwise the image has had only the contast boosted a little.<\/p>

\"EnhancedAnd here\u2019s the image rotated, so the horse is properly oriented. I guess this would be closer to how the horse might have looked on the hillside when viewed from the west.<\/p>

\"The<\/p>

I think it\u2019s worth saying at this point that although (to my eyes at least) the front part of the horse is pretty clear, I think there\u2019s still a bit of \u2018ambiguity\u2019 towards the creature\u2019s rear end. You can clearly see what could be a completely different position for the tail, pointing straight out and slightly downwards. And the third leg still looks a bit off to me, and I wonder if it should really be following the slightly lighter area to the right, closer to the hindmost leg. Also, I kept imagining I could see some kind of flowing mane above the horse\u2019s head, but in the end I didn\u2019t feel 100% confident making that part of the design either. After all, we\u2019re told those other guys did<\/em> carry out a soil resistivity survey, so I\u2019m giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they were on the right track with the overall shape. However, I do think that the front<\/em> legs of the horse on our image definitely appear to be curved, much more as though the horse is galloping.<\/p>

\"Red<\/u>Red Horse of Tysoe T-Shirt<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>

So anyway, that\u2019s what we discovered. And we\u2019ve used it as the basis for our exclusive Red Horse of Tysoe design. <\/p>

Just one final thing to mention. The name Tysoe is said to come from 'Tiw's hoh' which refers to (I think!) the Anglo Saxon equivalent of the Norse God T\u00fdr who lost his hand to Fenrir. So it\u2019s been suggested that this isn\u2019t a horse at all, but rather a wolf. What do you think?<\/p>

Should we be calling this The Red Wolf<\/em> of Tysoe??<\/p>

<\/p>

See also:<\/strong><\/p>

Visit the Eldon Threads<\/strong> Chalk Hill Collection for Men<\/u><\/a> and Chalk Hill Collection for Women<\/u><\/a> for our complete range of 100% organic t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies featuring more fascinating geoglyphs - some well known and some like the Red Horse that have faded from view.<\/p>","urlTitle":"the-red-horse-of-tysoe","url":"\/blog\/the-red-horse-of-tysoe\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/the-red-horse-of-tysoe\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/eldonthreads.com\/blog\/the-red-horse-of-tysoe\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1731604640,"updatedAt":1774448072,"publishedAt":1774448071,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":353639,"name":"Eldon Threads"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/9yj0fis444z4pdb1kapmualgkrplwnabtyskdug7l79aa748.jpeg?z=1.1&fx=0.45454545454545&fy=0.45454545454545","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/9yj0fis444z4pdb1kapmualgkrplwnabtyskdug7l79aa748.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=1.1&fx=0.45454545454545&fy=0.45454545454545","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/9yj0fis444z4pdb1kapmualgkrplwnabtyskdug7l79aa748.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=1.1&fx=0.45454545454545&fy=0.45454545454545"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"","keyPhraseCampaignId":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":49826,"title":"Why We All Need a Little Moly in Our Lives","url":"\/blog\/why-we-all-need-a-little-moly-in-our-lives\/","urlTitle":"why-we-all-need-a-little-moly-in-our-lives","division":353639,"description":"Moly is one of the earliest recorded plants said to possess magical properties. In Homer\u2019s Odyssey, it is used as protection against Circe\u2019s enchantments.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/rlrqsv2brpeurlssxgih4kcl2sknksiorgt5ba2q4smd5kmb.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=2&fx=0.42863349126654&fy=0.43475844115614","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/rlrqsv2brpeurlssxgih4kcl2sknksiorgt5ba2q4smd5kmb.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=2&fx=0.42863349126654&fy=0.43475844115614"},"hidden":0},{"id":54991,"title":"The Symbols of the Pictish Stones","url":"\/blog\/the-symbols-of-the-pictish-stones\/","urlTitle":"the-symbols-of-the-pictish-stones","division":353639,"description":"Discover the mysterious Pictish stones of Scotland and the meanings behind their symbols, animals and geometric carvings left by the ancient Picts.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/1cnvbjls8dstxqxjxgmavzhn1kpecqtyfqipoqh2iyievtoc.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=1.5&fx=0.60765550239234&fy=0.37352472089314","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/1cnvbjls8dstxqxjxgmavzhn1kpecqtyfqipoqh2iyievtoc.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=1.5&fx=0.60765550239234&fy=0.37352472089314"},"hidden":0},{"id":41078,"title":"Designing the Eldon Threads Logo","url":"\/blog\/designing-the-eldon-threads-logo\/","urlTitle":"designing-the-eldon-threads-logo","division":353639,"description":"We aimed for the Eldon Threads logo to have a slightly distressed quality to reflect the historical and legendary aspects of the designs.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/8xvqb8reqc7lpenljujmmqpvwzctcryaouwwk4qvylj6sjme.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/8xvqb8reqc7lpenljujmmqpvwzctcryaouwwk4qvylj6sjme.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}