Geograph - photograph every grid square

The black column centre left is a piece of artwork by Internationally-renowned artist Kenny Hunter.It is 6 metres high, cast in bronze and patinated in black.
See SE3406 : Close up of the statue representing Barnsley' mining history for detail

The piece depicts the figure of a child – symbolic of the past and future of Barnsley – standing on top of a column. Beneath the child’s feet, the column represents the ‘Barnsley Bed’ seam of coal, which for many years was the backbone of mining production in the South Yorkshire coalfield; the earth below it invokes the hardships and scale of the human task of coal mining. The boy and the ground he stands on are as one, suggesting the place we grow up in shapes our outlook and stays with us wherever we go.