Fovant Badges - Fovant, Wiltshire - Letters on Hills on Waymarking.com

Several remarkable chalk carvings in the Downs of Wiltshire at Fovant, which are clearly visible from the A30 Shaftesbury to Wilton road.
Coordinates are for designated viewing point on the A30.

"The Fovant Badges are a set of regimental badges cut into a chalk hill, Fovant Down, near Fovant, in southwest Wiltshire, England. They are located between Salisbury and Shaftesbury on the A30 road in the Nadder valley; or approximately 1/2 mile (800 m) southwest of Fovant. They were created by soldiers garrisoned nearby, and waiting to go to France, during the First World War; the first in 1916. They are clearly visible from the A30 road which runs through the village. Eight of the original twenty remain, and are scheduled ancient monuments and recognised by the Imperial War Museum as war memorials. Further badges have been added more recently.

The Fovant Badge Society holds an annual Drumhead Service which is attended by the Australian High Commissioner, local mayors and members of parliament. These services fund the upkeep of the badges.

After the outlines were cut into the grass-covered hillsides, they were refilled with chalk brought from a nearby slope, up to 50 tons per badge. The badges took an average fifty men six months to complete.

Current badges

Reading left to right (north-east to south-west), the badges at Fovant are:

Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (only central part remaining) RWY
6th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles) (claimed to be the first of the badges cut here) 6CLR
Australian Commonwealth Military Forces (the largest, 51m×32m)
Royal Corps of Signals (cut in 1970 to commemorate the Corps' 50th anniversary) Certa Cito
Wiltshire Regiment (added in 1950)
5th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) LRB
8th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
Devonshire Regiment

Centenary badge -

To commemorate the centenary of the first badge, created in 1916, a badge in the shape of a poppy, to represent the poppies that grew in “Flanders Fields” has been created."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Letter/Word on Hill: Multiple badges (L to R) - RWY, 6CLR, Australian Commonwealth Military Forces, Certa Cito, The Wiltshire Regiment, LRB, City of London, 1916 - 2016 Parking or nearest viewing point: N 51° 03.534 W 001° 59.081 Trail to Letter: Not Listed

Visit Instructions:
Please include a photograph that you took showing the letters from some vantage point.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/15/2020 MTBpointer visited it