The National Trust, Britain’s heritage and nature conservation charity, said on Thursday Experts have begun work on re-chalking the Cerne Abbas Giant, the UK’s “largest and most iconic chalk hill figure”.
The colossal chalk sculpture, approximately 55-metre (180-ft) long, carved on a hill overlooking Cerne Abbas in Dorset, south-west England, is an extraordinary portrait of the landscape and the famous landmark, not only because it is a physically faithful rendering of a naked and clearly excited man wielding a club.
However, the framework suffers from the elements, and requires regular renovation to keep it from fading.
What is being done to make the Sarn Abbas Giant stand out again?
National Trust staff, volunteers and members of the public, whose donations recently helped secure the purchase of a strip of land near the site, are using approximately 17 metric tonnes of fresh chalk for the task, with the aim of better protecting this historic site and its environment.
This is a laborious and highly skilled task, performed approximately once in a decade. Steep slopes are sensitive to erosion and rock must be packed tightly to keep out water and weeds.
Luke Dawson, the National Trust’s lead ranger in West Dorset and Cranbourne Chase, said, “Re-chalking the giant depends on techniques that have not changed for generations – carefully digging out old material and packing in fresh chalk by hand on very steep slopes. This is how we have kept him visible for centuries.”
Dawson said that in recent years, his rangers noticed that algae growth had begun to fade the bright white outline.
“We can’t say for sure what’s causing this, but hot weather conditions may be a factor and it’s something we’re continuing to investigate,” he said. “We are also seeing more intense rainfall, which could increase runoff and slowly wear away the chalk, so we are planning further monitoring to understand the impacts and how we may need to adapt – possibly by re-chalking more frequently.”
The last re-chalking operation took place in 2019. Rangers also plan to explore other ways of encouraging the surrounding landscape to retain water, for example by allowing bushland areas to grow and establishing permanent grassland.
Why is the National Trust buying the surrounding land to better preserve the giant?
The National Trust’s general manager for the area, Hannah Jefferson, said this year’s work to re-chalk the giant “feels particularly meaningful.”
This came a few months after the conservation organization purchased approximately 130 hectares (about 320 acres) of land around the mammoth – a mix of “species-rich chalk grassland, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an important archaeological landscape”.
This was achieved by a combination of major gifts, grants, legacies and a public appeal by Sir Stephen Fry to raise approximately £300,000 (about €350,000 or $400,000), reaching its target within a week.
Jefferson said, “For centuries, people have cared for the Giant by refurbishing him in chalk. Now, thanks to thousands of people coming together through the appeal, we can not only care for the figure, but also the extraordinary landscape that surrounds him.”
National Trust archaeologist Steve Timms said, “The mammoth never existed in isolation. By protecting the surrounding land, we now have the chance to explore how people moved through, used and understood this landscape over thousands of years.”
What is known about the origin of the Cerna Abbas Giant?
Who exactly created the giant figure in the Dorset countryside and why remains a mystery.
For centuries historians did not even know when it was built. Theories range from Roman-era depictions of Hercules to satirical rural depictions of Civil War military leader and Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in the 1600s, when the figure was first mentioned in written sources.
But in 2021, a study conducted by the National Trust dated the first carving of the figure to the late Saxon period, between 700 and 1100 AD.
Dorset was a major cultural and religious center in Saxon England, at the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex in southwest England, from where the first Saxon kings of a relatively unified England, such as Alfred the Great and Æthelstan, came.
The south of England is also famous for a series of chalk white horseshoes, the oldest of which was built centuries ago at the Cerne Abbas Giant at Uffington, near Oxford.
However, most were carved into the landscape in the late Middle Ages from the 17th century, as is the case with England’s other large chalk giant, the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. Much of the carving on PG-13 was previously believed to be from the Iron Age, until its origins were better clarified in 2003.
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Edited by: Zack Crellin