PEOPLE in Warminster got a shock on Saturday when their very own version of Westbury's white horse appeared overnight on the side of Battlesbury Hill.

The fabric horse was made by Geoff Cooke, an educator at the Warminster barracks, who was simply trying to encourage children to read. Mr Cooke, 40, said: "It was just a bit of light-hearted fun really I don't want to keep it up there long because it might ruin the grass."

Mr Cooke said he had tried to get publicity for the free book club he has set up at the barracks but wasn't getting anywhere, so thought the horse would be a good way to raise awareness. He went round the barracks collecting old and torn sheets and asked his mother to sew them up into the shape of the Westbury horse.

The book club is a free service based in the community centre at the barracks, which Mr Cooke set up to encourage more adults to read to their children and more children to read to their parents in return.

Members can come and borrow any of the 600 books for free and there will be a series of special events over the course of the year too.

Mr Cooke, who has a five-year-old and a two-year-old, said: "The club isn't just a garrison thing, I want it to be available for the whole town to use."

He said he reads to his children every day and they all really enjoy it so much so that sometimes the children want to go to bed and he wants to keep on reading. There will be an open day for families at the book club tomorrow from 8am-2pm, and then the club will open on Thursday and Friday afternoons from 3.30-4.30pm.

For more information contact Mr Cooke on geoff.cooke@tesco.net

  • As is common on April Fools Day, the residents of Broughton Gifford woke up on Saturday morning to a well-planned hoax.

Overnight a large estate agent's sign was attached to a lamppost announcing the auction of the village common for the development of low cost housing.

The prank even involved John Prescott to make the sign seem more authentic. It stated the order for the sale had come from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.