Dream, Sutton Manor Woodland, St Helens, UK

Take a walk to Dream…

“When we dream, anything is possible” – Jaume Plensa.

What is that big white thing in the trees? …something many people have more than likely said as they drive down the M62 from Liverpool to Manchester. I know we did, before we knew what it was. We used to pass it on the way home from work everyay…

Well then, what Is it? I hear you say…

The white ‘thing’ is actually a figure of a head, it’s a big white head. The sculpture is called ‘Dream’.

The Dream sculpture is located in St Helens and can be seen from the motorway! That’s how big it is, to be precise its actually 20 meters high, that big!

The sculpture is located more specifically at the ex-colliery in St Helens and was revealed by a group of ex-miners in 2009. Dream was designed by a Spanish artist named Jaume Plensa, what makes it special is that it relates to the past as well as being a symbol of hope for the future. The sculpture represents a girls face in a dreamy way with her eyes closed.

Getting there

Postcode: WA9 4RU

Carpark: King George V car park.  

Follow the postcode to the ‘Dream Carpark’ where you can park for free and access Sutton Manor just across the road and then the walk to Dream takes around a 10minutes.

Sutton Manor Woodland is accessible to public all year round and therefore anyone can visit the dream sculpture at any time. There are some gradients around Sutton Manor and along the route to Dream, although generally it is quite a low impact walk. Sutton Manor is a lovely place to take a picnic on a sunny day, as we did.

More about Dream

The sculpture was designed by Jaume Plensa after the artist had conversations with ex-miners as well as other members of the local community. Where he discovered that they wanted a reflective space for future generations at the top of the hill where the sculpture now stands. The locals had described wanting somewhere their young family members can look towards a brighter future. And we think he did a great job in creating that type of atmosphere.

The head stands between Liverpool and Manchester meaning you can enjoy great views across the Lancashire and Cheshire grasslands, as well as views of the mountains of Snowdonia, The Peak District and The Pennines.

Sutton Manor Woodland

Sutton Manor woodland also has several smaller memorial sculptures around the walk to and from Dream, these have many touching poems that relate to the Miners and what they went through. As well as benches designed by children from Sutton Manor Primary school. This is a really sentimental touch to the walk. There is also, audio points and 3D visualizations to learn in an interactive way. Therefore, you really can spend the whole day here.

Tip: Download the Dream App before you head out on the adventure to enjoy the full experience of the interactive activities throughout the woodland walk. For more information head to the Dream website.

Here’s some interesting facts about ‘Dream’ for you:

• The Sculpture in it’s entirety weighs approximately 373tonnes.
• On average over 35million vehicles each year pass the Dream sculpture.
• A total of 6160 hours were spent constructing Dream.
• More than 5500 cups of tea and coffee were drunk by the workers.
• The total cost of the project was 1.8 million pounds.
• The sculptures apex stands just over 100m above sea level.
• The head sculpture is approximately 50 times bigger than a life size head.
• Last, but most certainly not least, The 2021 Netflix Series ‘Stay Close’ filmed many of the scenes here.

Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoyed this blog… if you visit Dream after reading, let us know in the comments what you think?

Lu & Ad

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