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Penis envy? 35-foot appendage at UK heritage site was almost covered up

UK government official said that trees should be planted on Cerne Abbas Giant's sizeable member

The Art Newspaper
1 July 2025
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Cerne Abbas Giant from the air

Photo: National Trust Images. © Mike Calnan, James Dobson

Cerne Abbas Giant from the air

Photo: National Trust Images. © Mike Calnan, James Dobson

One of the largest land art appendages—part of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, UK—might have been covered up after a local resident complained about the enormous organ.

According to The Telegraph, in 1932 a government official wrote to the UK National Trust proposing ways to hide the Giant’s 35-foot penis after Walter Long, a Dorset resident, complained that the “obscenity” offended “Christian standards”.

Karen Heaney, a local historian, discovered that Cecil Yates, a Home Office official, proposed that trees be planted on the Giant's groin in a bid to hide his impressive phallus. The request was dismissed though because it was deemed inappropriate to tamper with a “national monument”.

Thankfully the 180-foot-tall hillside fertility figure has survived fully intact, its manhood visible from miles around. The Giant was created by the Anglo-Saxons in the eighth century as a tribute to Helith, the god of health.

DiaryCerne Abbas GiantHeritage
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