Head of Coventry Zoo's Zulu statue set for public display

The head of the statue and the tip of a spear were acquired by Tony Pedley

The head of a statue of a Zulu warrior which used to stand at a zoo's entrance will be put on public display after it was bought by an antiques dealer.

The 35ft (10.7m) monument was seen by visitors at Coventry Zoo until the attraction closed in 1980.

Most of it was crushed apart from the statue's head and the tip of the spear and was bought this month by Tony Pedley.

"It's such an iconic piece of Coventry history," he said.

Mr Pedley found out about the pieces of the statue when he said a friend had called him about a man he had known who "had it in his loft for 30 years".

He runs The 888 Emporium in Coventry, a shop for antiques, collectables and memorabilia.

When the statue and spear tip are delivered to him later this week, he said they would go on a wall at the shop "in pride of place" but did not want to reveal how much he had paid for them.

The head will be installed in Tony Pedley's shop, The 888 Emporium

Coventry Zoo opened in 1966 and closed 14 years later, according to the Coventry Society, a local civic society.

Many people will remember the large Zulu that dominated the entrance, it added.

• Hear on BBC Sounds how Tony Pedley acquired the statue's head and spear tip

The figure was considered controversial for its portrayal of African people, according to 1973 Live, an account on X which documents 1970s history.

The remains of the statue were a mystery until 2011 when two brothers said they had the head, the Coventry Telegraph reported in 2011.

The paper said they found it lying in a scrapyard in the early 1980s.

The statue stood at the entrance to Coventry Zoo until it closed

"The crown's broken so I've got a guy making me a bit of a new crown and we just need to give it a bit of TLC," Mr Pedley said.

"I just want to keep part of it for history."