Whipsnade’s chalk lion landmark restored by volunteers

A piece of hillside chalk art depicting a lion has been restored by a team of dancing and stomping volunteers.

Whipsnade Zoo used 1,100 tonnes of chalk to restore the landmark near the attraction in Bedfordshire.

A team of about 60 volunteers had to use their feet to stamp the freshly laid chalk into place on the 147-metre-long lion, thought to be the largest hill figure in England.

Sara Nicholas, volunteer advisor at the zoo, said: “There were some very unique approaches to stamping, with a few groups breaking out a line dance, or ‘lion dance’, to make sure their section was well and truly compacted.”

Construction on the hillside figure took two years and started in 1931.

It was covered during World War Two (1939-45) so enemy aircraft could not use it as a navigation point.

The former Mayor of Dacorum Gbola Adeleke offered to buy the lion in 2023 after he was concerned the figure was not being maintained properly, but the zoo declined.

The restoration project has seen volunteers remove weeds and replace chalk.

New chalk had previously been added in 2018 but the zoo wanted to give it another makeover ahead of the Zoological Society of London’s 200th anniversary.