The Long Man of Wilmington or Wilmington Giant is a hill figure on the steep slopes of Windover Hill near Wilmington, East Sussex, England. It is northwest of Eastbourne and south of Wilmington. Locally, the figure was once often called the Green Man. The Long Man is tall, holds two "staves", and is designed to look in proportion when viewed from below.

Formerly thought to originate in the Iron Age or even the Neolithic period, a 2003 archaeological investigation showed that the figure may have been cut in the Early Modern era – the 16th or 17th century AD. From afar the figure appears to have been carved from the underlying chalk, but the modern figure is formed from white-painted breeze blocks and lime mortar.

The Long Man is one of two major extant human hill figures in England; the other is the Cerne Abbas Giant, north of Dorchester. Both are scheduled monuments. Two other hill figures that include humans are the Osmington White Horse and the Fovant regimental badges.

The Long Man is one of two hill figures in East Sussex; the other is the Litlington White Horse, three miles south-west of the Long Man.

Origins

left|upright|thumb|Artist's impression

The origin of the Long Man is unclear. For many years the earliest known record was a drawing made by William Burrell when he visited Wilmington Priory, near Windover (or Wind-door) Hill, in 1766. Burrell's drawing shows a figure holding a rake and a scythe, both shorter than the present staves. In 1993, another drawing was discovered in the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth House which had been made by the surveyor John Rowley in 1710, the earliest date the figure is known to have existed.

An early suggestion, sometimes stated to be a local tradition, was that the Long Man had been cut by monks from nearby Wilmington Priory, and represented a pilgrim. This was not widely believed by antiquarians, who felt that monks were unlikely to have created an unclothed figure. Until the first decade of the 21st century, the Long Man was most commonly asserted to have been cut in the Neolithic period, primarily due to the presence of a long barrow nearby, or given an Iron Age attribution based on a perceived similarity to other hill figures.

John North wrote that during the centuries around 3480 BC the figure would have been positioned to mark the constellation Orion's movement across the ridge above it. The figure, according to this interpretation, may have been a manifestation of a Neolithic astral religion. Another suggestion was that the figure had a Romano-British provenance, while an origin in the time of Anglo-Saxon England gained credence after the 1964 discovery at Finglesham in Kent of an Anglo-Saxon buckle depicting a figure, possibly Odin, holding two spears in a similar fashion to the Long Man.

alt=A gold buckle decorated with a man in a horned helmet carrying a spear in each hand.|left|upright|thumb|The buckle discovered during excavations led by [[Sonia Chadwick Hawkes at Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery in 1964]]

In her book Weald of Kent and Sussex (published in 1953) novelist and regional historian Sheila Kaye-Smith puts forward the theory: "that he represents the god Baldur standing at the gate of Midsummer. On Midsummer Day the rising sun, appearing over the eastern rim of Andredsweald, would send a patch of light across the waves of trees to enter, as it were, the hillside beyond them. In that hillside the ancients saw a gate, the gate of midsummer and morning, and they saw a god opening the gate to the triumphantly entering sun. So where he stood they carved his likeness, a hand on each pillar of the gate. To us now he looks as if, instead of this, he were holding an upright pole in either hand."

Archaeological work performed in 2003 by Martin Bell of the University of Reading, in association with Aubrey Manning's Open University programme Landscape Mysteries, strongly suggested that the figure dates from the Early Modern period – the 16th or 17th century AD. Bell found that the slope on which the Long Man was cut had gone through a period of instability in this time, after a very long prior period of stability, suggesting that the figure was first cut then.

There was also some evidence to suggest that the feature on one staff similar to a scythe blade, flail or shepherd's crook was genuine, along with a suggestion of a "helmet" or hat. It seems likely that the proportions of the figure have been distorted slightly by the 1873 bricking and the 1969 replacement of the bricks with breeze blocks, with the Long Man having been up to tall prior to 1873.

20th and 21st centuries

thumb|upright|Annual [[pagan Long Man celebrations (with effigy)]]

In 1925, the site of the Long Man was given to the Sussex Archaeological Trust (now the Sussex Archaeological Society) by the Duke of Devonshire. During the Second World War it was painted green to avoid it being used as a landmark by German aircraft.

The 1993 book, The Druid Way by Sussex author Philip Carr-Gomm, drew attention to the supposed significance of the Long Man as a sacred site for the modern world.

At dawn on May Day, the Long Man Morris Men dance at the foot of the Long Man.

thumb|left|The vandalised "Long" Man of Wilmington during [[summer solstice 2010]]

In 2007, the site was used in television fashion show Trinny & Susannah Undress the Nation. Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine and 100 women gave the Long Man a temporary female form by using their bodies to add pigtails, breasts and hips. The women created the effect by lying down in white boiler suits to make shapes. ITV were given permission for the event by Sussex Archaeological Society and that they took "the utmost care ... to protect this historical site". The hillside chalk carving was not permanently changed or affected. However the scene prompted twenty-two Neo-Pagans to protest at the site during filming. The Long Man is claimed as 'sacred' by the Council of British Druid Orders, who said the 'stunt' would "dishonour an ancient Pagan site of worship". The owners, Sussex Archaeological Society, later apologised for offence caused to any "individuals or groups" by the filming.

Overnight, on 17/18 June 2010 a giant phallus was painted on the Long Man, rivalling that of the Cerne Abbas Giant. It appeared that a football pitch marker or similar object was used to paint the phallus. On 16 October 2015, anti-fracking protesters added the words "FRACK OFF!" above the Long Man, in protest against fracking being approved in the area. The words were removed quickly and were believed to have been made out of tarpaulin. On 27 January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a face mask was painted on to the Long Man.

Influence on culture

The Long Man has long been an influence on artists, musicians, and authors. The composers Benjamin Britten and Frank Bridge would often picnic at the foot of the figure. It inspired On Windover Hill by Nathan James, which premiered at Boxgrove Priory, near Chichester, by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Harlequin Chamber Choir on 7 March 2020. The figure was also an influence on Avril Coleridge-Taylor's work for chorus and orchestra, Wyndore, which was written in Alfriston in 1936.

In 1989, Paul Geerts wrote a Suske and Wiske story named De krachtige krans (translated into English as The circle of power), in which the Long Man plays an important role as the protagonist's helper.

In Season 2, Episode 3 of the Netflix dramatisation The Sandman the Long Man (named Wendel) is shown as a sort of gatekeeper to an interdimensional portal through which beings from Faerie (most notably King and Queen Auberon and Titania, Nuala, Cluracan, and Puck) enter the regular world of William Shakespeare on Lord Morpheus' invitation.

See also

  • Firle Corn
  • Cerne Abbas Giant
  • Hill figure
  • Litlington White Horse
  • Osmington White Horse
  • Uffington White Horse
  • Marree Man
  • Fovant Badges

References