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The Fovant Badges

Fovant, Wiltshire

Regimental badges carved into a hillside by soldiers heading for the trenches.

During the First World War, thousands of soldiers trained in camps around Fovant before going to France. To pass the time and leave their mark, they carved huge badges of their regiments into the chalk downs.

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When
Cut 1916–1918
Where
51.0600, -2.0000
Group
Hill figures & giants

Visiting

Best seen from the A30 between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, which has a lay-by.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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