English Heritage supporting the White Horse Soapbox Derby
uncategorised • Posted 2 months ago
Westbury Town Council and English Heritage team up for 'unique and exciting' event
English Heritage cares for over 400 historic buildings, monuments and sites - from world-famous prehistoric sites to grand medieval castles, from Roman forts on the edge of the empire to a Cold War bunker. Through these, they bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year. Registered charity no. 1140351.
English Heritage will be supporting the White Horse Soapbox Derby this year, after the charity extensively cleaned and repainted the Westbury White Horse in 2023.
Thanks to English Heritage and their fantastic team, this year's viewing area will overlook the spectacular escarpment and show the soapbox karts in a truly unique setting. We expect the sheep on the fields a few miles away will look down with a certain intrigue, excitement and confusion, which is exactly what we expect of the crowds on the day !
"Enabling people to access and enjoy our free-to-enter historic sites is all part of English Heritage’s duty in caring for them. We can’t imagine a more unique and exciting way of doing this than this year’s Westbury Soapbox Derby," said Ed McGregor, English Heritage Free Sites Partnership Manager, West.
The charity will have a volunteer and staff presence at the Derby to explain the historic importance of the site to visitors and to support this great community day out for the people of Westbury.
And, for the third year in a row the soapbox carts will be given a special award for ‘best historical theme’, illustrating the importance of the ancient hill fort to the event's identity. We've had some cracking efforts over the years and some incredible winners.
We can't wait to see what the new ‘class of 24’ come up with this time around on May 18th!
Photo Credit: English Heritage
