UFFINGTON’S famous White Horse is gleaming again after volunteers refreshed its chalk.

Brothers Thomas Streatfield, nine, and seven-year-old Sam helped out yesterday.

Thomas said: “We got given lumps of chalk and a hammer and we hammered the chalk into the White Horse.

“When we hammered it, it sort of smoothed out, it was quite nice.”

Thomas, from Faringdon, added: “It looked much whiter than it did when we started.”

His mum Amanda, 44, said: “It was really rewarding. We all worked in a line so everything joined up.”

The White Horse is 3,000 years old and 110 metres long.

Its traditional rechalking became a well-known, large-scale public event until it was banned in 1857, when 30,000 visitors and travellers came and refused to leave.

Now, more than 3,000 hours a year are needed to make sure it stays white, for which The National Trust invites the public to help out.

Volunteers will be back chalking today between 10.30am-3.30pm.

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