On New Year's Eve 2025, environmentalist and author Lisa Schneidau welcomed in 2026 with giants in Lostwithiel, Cornwall. 'At a certain time of the evening, they started appearing from all over the town. Then everyone flooded out of their houses and congregated into a massive procession of giants and lights and drums and music. It was absolutely extraordinary,' she said.
The giants were the work of The Lost Giants (TLG), a collective of craftspeople and artists reviving the British tradition of making processional giants. Founded three years ago by theatre designer Ruth Webb and her sister-in-law Amy Webb, TLG creates effigies from wooden frames, cloth, papier-mâché and card. The collective has produced giants for lantern parades, harvest processions at Hauser & Wirth's Somerset gallery, and environmental protests.
Ruth Webb's father, John Webb, brought the tradition to Lostwithiel in 1990 after seeing giants at European festivals. The current revival draws on 1980s European cultural exchanges and British outdoor theatre's use of puppets for political statements. TLG's creations combine folklore with modern ecological activism, such as Old Crockern, the vengeful spirit of Dartmoor, made from plaited reeds.
This year, TLG received a grant from the Ffern Folk Foundation to create the Big Folk Archive, an online photo archive of giants. It is also seeking an environmental campaign group in the south west to collaborate on making a new giant. 'For those that don't have a large voice, giants can show our collective desires and strength,' said Ruth Webb.
