Sutton Manor Colliery

Overview

A Lancashire coalfield colliery whose old spoil tip now carries Dream, a 20-metre sculpture of a young girl's head commissioned with the involvement of the very miners who once worked beneath it.

History

Sutton Manor Colliery, near St Helens, worked coal from 1906 until its closure in 1991. Rather than simply demolishing and abandoning the site, the Forestry Commission began managing the former colliery land from 2001, planting some 50,000 trees — alder, willow and ash — to turn the old spoil tip into a community woodland. In 2008, as part of Channel 4's 'The Big Art Project', St Helens Council, local residents and former Sutton Manor miners were directly involved in commissioning a major public artwork for the site; the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa was selected, and his sculpture Dream — a 20-metre-high, 500-tonne head and neck of a young girl in meditation, coated in gleaming white Spanish dolomite — was installed atop the old spoil tip in 2009. Ex-miners were closely involved in choosing the piece, intended deliberately to set a bright, hopeful, white monument against the site's black coal-mining past.

Geology

Sutton Manor worked coal seams of the Lancashire Coalfield near St Helens.

Workings

Coal was worked by conventional methods typical of the Lancashire coalfield through the 20th century.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1991; the Forestry Commission began reclaiming the site as community woodland from 2001.

What remains

The former spoil tip is now Sutton Manor Community Woodland, home to Dream, a major public sculpture, and open to visitors.

The reclaimed spoil tip, now planted woodland, topped by the Dream sculpture.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Sutton Manor Colliery closed in 1991; from 2001 the Forestry Commission planted around 50,000 trees to reclaim the former spoil tip as community woodland. ¹
• In 2008-09, as part of Channel 4's 'The Big Art Project', former Sutton Manor miners were directly involved in commissioning Jaume Plensa's sculpture Dream — a 20-metre, 500-tonne head and neck of a young girl — installed on the old spoil tip. ^2,1

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Dream St.Helens — Sutton Beauty & Heritage
2. (secondary) Dream (sculpture) — Wikipedia

Record created: 21 August 2026 · Last researched: 21 August 2026