Gansey Girl

The subject of this sculpture celebrates East Yorkshire’s maritime heritage, the fishing industry and the local community. It was inspired by a photograph taken by a renowned nineteenth-century  photographer from Whitby, Frank Meadow-Sutcliffe. The statue is sited on the North Pier at Bridlington, the fishermen can see the Gansey Girl as they set out to sea and as they return. The statue depicts a girl from a fishing family, who is knitting a gansey, which is a traditional fisherman’s heavy woollen sweater that was originally made on the Channel Island of Guernsey, hence the name ‘gansey’. The gansey was adopted by coastal areas on the British mainland with villages and families developing their own unique and distinctive patterns.

A shoal of fish appear to swim around beneath the statue, every one was cast from an actual fish and has the name of  a local fishing family engraved upon it. The fish were placed on the pedestal by members of these families.