Gansey Girl

The Gansey Girl 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. She 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girl from a fishing family, who is knitting a gansey, which is a traditional fisherman’s heavy woollen sweater that was originally made on the Channel Island of Guernsey, hence the name ‘gansey’.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.