Using scrubbing brushes and steam washers, a team of volunteers got to work cleaning Westbury’s iconic White Horse at the weekend.

Despite expectations that it would take up to three weeks, the cleaning was finished in just two days by a team of 24 volunteers who were lowered down on harnesses.

It was organised by the town’s Rotary Club, which wanted the monument looking its best in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, when it will be illuminated.

Often mockingly known as the old grey mare, the White Horse regularly discolours due to lichens colonising its concrete surface.

Rotary Club member John Ridgers said: “It is a great surprise that the cleaning was carried out so quickly. We were supposed to be training the next load of volunteers this week.

“The concrete surface of the horse is perfect for this unwanted green and grey mess, so we would like to paint it to protect it in future.

“I think this is likely to be a permanent problem. However, now we have the cleaning equipment it should be relatively simple to do it again.”

The work was carried out with the help of a £10,000 grant from both Westbury Town Council and the local area board.

The Rotary Club is looking at plans to paint the concrete with a protective coating and is awaiting a decision by English Heritage, which owns the monument but claims it cannot afford to clean it.

However, a Heywood resident has claimed the reason the horse grows dirty so quickly is due to landscaping work carried out by the heritage organisation more than a decade ago.

Victor Fielden says he and his neighbours remember a gully cut into the chalk above the horse, to prevent dirty rainwater running over it from further up the hill.

“I don’t see why Westbury should have to pay to clean the horse when it is English Heritage’s fault that it is dirty,” he said.

“I think they got rid of that gully for health and safety reasons, to stop people playing on the horse, but now the water runs down through the soil on to the surface.

“It never used to get dirty as quickly as it does now, just a few years after it is cleaned.”

In response, an English Heritage spokesman said: “We are aware of the new information which has come to light about landscaping above the White Horse and we are currently investigating it.”

The surface of the horse was concreted for protection in the 1950s and resurfaced in 1993.

It was last cleaned in August 2007, at a cost of around £10,000.