Giant Semi-Naked Shockwaves

A half ton bronze statue of the Giant Rombald holding a rock above his head by John Bridgeman from the 1960's resides uneasily in a coffee shop in the Airedale shopping centre in Keighley.


It has often been the subject of controversy & caused 'shockwaves' when it was proposed as the subject of a cover design for a Girl Guides year book in the '70s.

It seems to me a fine piece of work that is hidden in plain sight in perhaps the most incongruous location possible, disguised and half hidden by cheap plastic commercial hoardings - perhaps because it is a source of embarrassment.


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The Giant of myth lived on Ilkley Moor and was chased by his wife from Ilkley to Almscliffe after coming home drunk. He stepped on a huge rock splitting it in two and that is now known as the Cow and Calf at Ilkley Quarry. His wife dropped an apron full of stones known as 'The Great Skirtful of Stones' cairn on Burley Moor.