The Long Man of Wilmington is set to get a makeover to restore him to his former glory.

The 226ft high figure, also known as the Wilmington Giant, is cut into the turf on the downland chalk of Windover Hill, near Eastbourne.

Nature has not been kind to the mythic fertility symbol and he is not as bright as he used to be.

To restore him to his former glory the Long Man Morris Dancers will be applying a paint brush to the figure, one of the largest such representations of a man anywhere in the world, before their traditional May 1 dance at the foot of the giant.

It will not be the first time the Long Man has been touched up by the dancers however. Back in 1999 they gave the giant a lick of Sandtex to restore his brilliance but now he needs whitening once again.

It is unknown when the figure was originally cut into the chalk but he was not discovered until the 17th Century. Over time the turf had grown over the outline and during the 19th Century the chalk was overlaid with yellow-coloured stones.

In the late 1960s these were overlaid with some 770 concrete blocks, each about two feet high and nine inches wide.