Dream Sculpture - Saint Helens

Dream is a 20 metre high sculpture of the head and neck of a nine-year-old girl, which has been elongated by a third. Her eyes are closed in quiet contemplation. The sculpture is located on the former site of Sutton Manor Colliery in St Helens, designed by world-renowned and award-winning Catalan artist, Jaume Plensa. Dream was unveiled in June 2009. The structure is coated in sparkling white Spanish dolomite, as a contrast to the coal which used to be mined here. It cost nearly £1.9 million and it is hoped it will become as powerful a symbol in North West England as Antony Gormley's Angel of the North is in North East England. The plinth in the shape of a miner's tally is 17 metres in diameter, made of 36 units. The casting of Dream by Evans Concrete of Derbyshire took a total of sixty days. A total of 6160 man hours were spent in constructing the sculpture. 54 different panels each weighing 9 tonnes comprise Dream's head. The supporting piles go 38 metres underground, nearly twice Dream's height. An estimated 55 million vehicles pass Dream each year on the M62 motorway.