Jaume Plensa's Dream, Sutton Manor, St Helens, Merseyside

The sculpture Dream stands on the site of Sutton Manor colliery, near St Helens, Merseyside. The pit dated from 1906, although another shaft was sunk in 1912 and this was to be one of the largest pits in the Lancashire coalfield. In the 1960s it employed as many workers as 1500, with a production of more than 600,000 tonnes a year. It was closed in 1991 in spite of large remaining quantities of coal. Dream is a memorial.

Just off the M62, this structure is seen by many millions of vehicle drivers travelling past it every year. It is the brainchild of the Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, is twenty metres high and made of pre-cast concrete and Spanish dolomite. It represents the head of a girl with her eyes closed. The inspiration is the former motto of St Helens – ex terra lucem ('out of the earth – light').