The Battle of Bratton 4 The route B3098 Ethandune (Edington) explore memorial stone here Church E X P L R E The spectacular view from the hill top above commemorates the Bratton Springs Camp 3 Westbury’s white horse has long been battle when the in- T H E L A N D S C A P E A ROU N D appreciated. Bratton Camp is one of the many White 2 Barrow vading Danes were defeated and driven back To Horse Iron Age hill-forts along the chalk escarpments Westbury to the north by the Saxon King Alfred in 878. It 1 Westbury White Horse of Wiltshire, occupied about 2300 years ago. 4 Battle of is said that the original white horse was cut to Edington CAR N Memorial The Chalk, here forming the northern edge of celebrate the victory. To PARK Westbury Salisbury Plain, provided an easily defensible Wessex Ridgeway path well-drained site with a clear panoramic view. 5 Chalk quarry: This pit, which cuts deep However, the site was occupied even earlier, as into the Chalk of Salisbury Plain, provides the 5 Chalk 1km within the huge boundary banks and ditches raw material for the Westbury cement works. Pit 1 mile of Bratton Camp is a long barrow, a multi- Chalk is made up of the remains of countless chambered tomb, dating from 5-6000 years millions of microscopic plankton that were ago in the Stone Age. As permanent religious floating in the sea around 80 million years ago. sites used over many generations, long barrows WILTSHIRE GEOLOGY GROUP These were eaten and then excreted by other were carefully sited on hill-tops and ridges - c/o WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST plankton, and their ‘skeletons’ of tiny calcium they were meant to be visible from a distance. ELM TREE COURT • LONG STREET carbonate plates sank to the sea floor, thereby DEVIZES • WILTSHIRE • SN10 1NS This trail will show how the underlying rocks producing a rain of debris that over 25 million affect not just the landscape, but also how years built up to form the Chalk. Preserved The group aims to promote and protect our people have made use of the natural resources. within the rock are fossils of a variety of other geological heritage. For more information about The White Horse, cut in 1778, is the oldest of animals living in the sea at the time. Wiltshire’s geoconservation organisation and how the eight white horses adorning the steep to become a member write to the address above, escarpments of Wiltshire’s downs. It replaced call 01380 871008, email [email protected] an earlier horse that faced the other way. or visit our website at www.wiltsgeology.org.uk This guide was funded by English Nature and LANDSCAPE & GEOLOGY TRAIL produced by the Wiltshire Geology Group. White Horse photo courtesy of Bristol United Press 3.25 miles (5km) takes about 2 hours The Long Barrow From the viewing plinth, you can see the From the White Horse corner of the hill-fort 1 Clay pit 2 effect of the different rock types on the landscape: the Vale of Pewsey can be seen cutting through the Jurassic limestones of the Cotswolds form the Chalk into the Greensand below. Streams have Cement works the horizon to the northwest, notched by the eroded along a weakness in the Earth’s crust here, river at Bradford-on-Avon. They dip gently down where Africa pushing against Europe over millions to the south-east beneath the softer clays which By the cement works chimney is a clay pit. This of years has caused the rock to warp upwards. form the broad vale containing the Bristol Avon is in the Kimmeridge Clay, which built up on the and its tributary, the Biss, as shown in the cross- Jurassic sea floor 150 million years ago. Fossil section below right. remains of the many sea creatures which lived and died here include huge pliosaurs, marine reptiles, The Chalk forming the escarpment is the youngest The Vale of Pewsey 3 Church Springs: A spring gushes out of now on display in Bristol City Museum. rock formation here, Cretaceous in age (70-95 the base of the hill below the church, where the million years old). Although it is a relatively soft The principal raw materials for cement are chalk valley cuts into the water-saturated lower levels rock, a harder layer caps the escarpment. and clay. The chalk is crushed and turned into of the porous Chalk. Beneath the Chalk is the Chalk resists erosion because it is porous slurry in the quarry then carried through a buried Greensand, itself underlain by the thick Gault and rainwater sinks in rather than running pipeline down to the cement works below. Clay Clay. As the Chalk and Greensand underneath over the surface where it could erode the rock. (from the clay pit) is then added, along with iron are both permeable, rainwater sinks into them The terracettes or ‘sheep tracks’, which are oxide, sand and ash - the composition is carefully From the eastern ramparts of the hill-fort, the dry until they become saturated, forming a huge common features on the steep escarpment controlled. The mixture is pumped into massive valley leading down to Bratton Church comes into reservoir from which springs emerge as the slopes are actually the result of soil creep kilns and heated up to 1400°C. This drives off water view. This was cut by running water during the last clays below prevent the rainwater sinking any downhill over the millennia. and carbon dioxide, leaving calcium silicates as a Ice Age, which fi nished about 10,000 years ago. lower. This ready water supply all along the clinker. The clinker is then ground up and gypsum Then the ground was frozen and surface water Greensand gave rise to villages such as Bratton is added to control setting time, making cement. couldn’t sink into the normally permeable Chalk. and Edington, and indeed Westbury. Chalk Escarpment SECTION ACROSS THE CLAY VALE FROM BRADFORD-ON-AVON TO SALISBURY PLAIN Bradford Avon Trowbridge Biss Cement Westbury Salisbury Plain Greensand on Avon Valley Valley Works White Horse 200m Corallian sands Greensand Chalk Gault Clay 100m Kimmeridge Sea Limestones of the Clay Level Oxford Clay & Kellaways Formations Cotswolds 1km 1 mile.