York Guides

By John Thorpe
It has to be one of the most unusual painting jobs anywhere - turning Kilburn's grey mare in to a gleaming white charger.
But that's the task that was handed to Eden Whatnell, a North Yorkshire paint-sprayer who is more used to turning his hose on industrial and agricultural buildings.
However, Eden has experience when it comes to this hillside equine on Roulston Scar above the village that's home to "mouseman" furniture.

The Kilburn White Horse Association, a group of volunteers who look after the carving, decided six years ago it was no longer safe to tip any more chalk chippings to keep the horse white for fear of creating a landslide and the whole lot ending up in the car park below.
They looked for other solutions. Painting had always been ruled out because it was thought impractical. Some suggested trying to whiten thousands of tiny chalk chippings would be like painting a ploughed field.
However, after some research Association chairman John Bielby told an annual meeting that paint spraying was a workable solution and knowing of Mr Whatnell's skills in spraying farm and industrial buildings got him to tender.
It was a step in to the unknown for the Association, and for the contractor, but it was judged a success. It stayed the course.
The cost of the job was met from donations made by YEP readers to an appeal in Yorkshire Diary.
Fresh look
Six years on and the "white" was fast disappearing from Kilburn's White Horse so at this year's annual meeting it was decided another paint job was needed to freshen up the icon.
Mr Whatnell was invited to tender, along with some other firms, but it was his company - Rooftec of Sutton-on-Forest, near York - that landed the job and then he offered the Association a deal they couldn't refuse. He'd not charge for his labour!
Work is expected to take six days and will run in to next week.
Again funds from the Yorkshire Diary appeal are being used to pay for 2,000 litres of Johnstones high-quality masonry paint that is environmentally-friendly.
"When this paint job is done the Kilburn White Horse should be visible from across much of the North Riding and beyond - from the outskirts of places like Leeds," said Mr Bielby.
"Hopefully it will remind town and city folk of the attractions of this wonderful part of our county which suffered so badly during the foot and mouth crisis.
"It may spur them to pay us a visit if they haven't done already."



Factfile
Kilburn's heritage...
Kilburn's White Horse is the largest of all Britain's white horses in surface area covering just over an acre. It was carved on Roulston Scar in 1857 from a design by by Kilburn village schoolmaster John Hodgson. The idea came about because Thomas Taylor, a native of Kilburn who'd left to join his family's thriving provisions business in London, had seen white horses on the hills in Berkshire and wanted his native village to have the biggest white horse in Britain. He succeeded. But it left the village with a headache - how to pay for the upkeep of the hill carving.
YEP readers first galloped to the rescue of the white horse in 1925. That's happened several times since and the newspaper continues to support the hillside equine.