The subject of the February meeting of the Kineton and District Local History Group, was Tysoe and the history of its red horses.  It must have intrigued many people as Mr Kevin Wyles’ talk attracted the largest audience in recent memory.

Why the plural ‘horses’? Did anyone know where were they had been sited? The answers to these and many other questions were answered in Mr Wyles’ lively and spontaneous talk.  He told of the ancient red horse, carved into the hill above Tysoe in a time beyond our records and concealed by a plantation of trees, maybe in the 18th century.  Then there were at least three others, carved to the west of the original about 300 years ago.  All had now vanished but are recalled in folk memory and in the name by which the area is still known as ‘The vale of the red horse’.

Mr Wyles passed around the audience many artefacts, largely pottery, which he himself had excavated in the area,many dating from Roman times.  It was a real treat to handle these; to hold in one’s hand a fragment of a Roman pot shaped by a hand that had died nearly 2,000 years ago.  A fascinating and rewarding evening giving the audience a fresh insight into their local history.