VISIT TO THE LONG MAN OF WILMINGTON

Geography department trip with Year 7 students and Year 6 students from Willingdon Primary School to measure the Long Man of Wilmington. This is the first time the landmark has been measured by hand. A talk was given by Chris Tuckett from the Sussex Archaeological Society about the possible history of the chalk figure and we were invited back next year to help with the annual painting. Later on students made up their own stories about its origins, which will be displayed at the projects first exhibition in October. Our thanks to Mrs Lannin and Miss Walters. Comments on the day from some of the students are included below:

Measuring the Long Man was quite tiring but I thought it was worth it. It was really incredible to measure him and see how long he really is. It was interesting listening to Chris Tucket’s talk because I’ve really wanted to know why he was there. It was good to work with other people who you only knew a little but and some who you didn’t know at all.

Alexander V.H

My day was amazing. We were measuring the Long Man of Wilmington. When we were travelling to the Long Man we could see him from very far away, but when you got to him, it was massive. We measured him by tape measures. We also met Chris Tcket and he told us a bit about the Long Man. Such as; he is over 2000 years old, he was yellow for a long time then he got turned white and the local people paint him every year. We also met Anthony Carr. He was a photographer and he took a picture of us on the Long Man, standing in a line and we pretended to be his hair, his feet and face. Will Nash was the artist. He was helping us measure and with all the measurements he is going to make an art work. The Long Man was green in World War 2 so the people in the planes could not use it as a hideout.

Samuel

On Thursday 28th June, 18 students went up to Wilmington to measure the Long man. First Chris Tucket talked to us about the history of the Long Man and asked us if we would like to come and paint the Long Man next time it needs painting. Next we went up to the Long Man. It was very hard trying to get up the big hill the Long Man was on but we managed. We measured the head first then worked our way down. Trinny and Susannah were filming the Long Man (but I don’t think we were in it!)

Alex