THE Westbury white horse has been gleaming in the sun after volunteers gathered to give it a spruce up at the weekend.

After weeks of planning Westbury Town Council in partnership with English Heritage, Natural England, Westbury Rotary Club and Westbury Rugby Football Club along with volunteers from the town, spent two days using jets to remove the blanket of dirt which had settled on the hill.

Steve Carrington, one of the co-ordinators said: "We were pleased to see so many people helping.

"The white horse looks directly on to the town and I think there was an aspect of civic pride which made people want to help out.

"This clean up was the first phase of the work we want to carry out to improve the white horse and keep it this clean for longer.We hope to announce the next phase soon."Taking part in the cleaning on behalf of Westbury Maddie bias from Westbury Rugby Club said: "Rugby Club as part of the NatWest WorkForce Weekend was such an exciting opportunity I couldn’t turn it down.

"We are so lucky as a club to have such a spectacular back drop to play against and the hard work of the club members and the other volunteers is really going to give us something to show off to our opposition.

"Abseiling down the White Horse pressure washer in hand is an experience I’ll never forget and I’m really proud to have been involved with the project."