Giant Inn (Cerne Abbas), Giant’s Rest (Wilmington)

It is good to see pubs renaming themselves as a tribute to a fine local landmark. Cerne Abbas (Dorset) and Wilmington (East Sussex) are both famous for having a huge figure of a naked giant carved on a chalk hillside beside the village; in the former, a Red Lion has become the Giant Inn, and in the latter a White Horse is now the Giant’s Rest.

There is argument over whether these hill-figures were carved in ancient times as pagan symbols, or more recently, for fun. The one at Cerne Abbas looks like Roman images of Hercules with his club, but there are no references to it in any documents until 1694, at which date the local churchwardens paid out three shillings to have it scrubbed clean of grass and weeds. Similarly at Wilmington the first proof of the Long Man’s existence is a sketch in a map of 1710, yet he looks rather like the little naked spear-carrying warriors in horned helmets, shown on pagan Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon helmets and buckles, which are thought to represent the war god Odin/Woden or his devotees. Hopefully scientific tests may one day settle these questions.

According to local stories shortly before the First World War, the Long Man had lived on top of the hill above Wilmington, but had been killed – some said, in a quarrel with a rival giant living three miles away on Firle Beacon, in which the two hurled boulders or hammers at one another; or, said others, by a local shepherd who flung an extremely hard lump of bread and cheese at him; or again, perhaps he was simply so clumsy that he tripped over his own feet, tumbled down the hill, and broke his neck. Either way, it was said the villagers drew round his outline as he lay dead on the slope, to prove that he had been the tallest person who ever lived. Modern story-tellers prefer to think that he was just asleep on the hillside – hence the name of the pub.

Jacqueline is the author of Green Men and White Swans, an enchanting guide to the stories and legends behind Britain's traditional pub names.