Location: Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear Date completed: 1998 Designer/Builder: Antony Gormley OBE, manufactured by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd Function: Monumental Sculpture

In 1998 an angel descended on Gateshead. This is the "Angel of the North", a huge steel sculpture of an angel by the artist Antony Gormley OBE. Located on the southern edge of Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, it stand 20 m (66 ft) tall, with a wingspan of 54 m (177 m). These wings are angled slightly forward to give onlookers a "sense of embrace". It overlooks the busy A1 and A167 roads, so is seen every day by some 90,000 road users, as well as passengers on the nearby East Coast Main Line rail route. The site was carefully chosen to give maximum visibility to the sculpture - and because of its associations. Once this whole area was a hive of industry and especially coal mining. Near to where the Angel now stands for two centuries the men (and women and children) who laboured at the Team Colliery once produced coal around the clock. One object of the Angel, according to Antony Gormley is to remind passers-by that for two centuries miners worked underground here. It also symbolises the transition from the industrial to the information age. When production stopped at the mine the area was reclaimed a green space.

The Angel of the North is the product of local industry and crafts. Work started on the project in 1994, with the £1 million cost being largely met by National Lottery funding. At first sight the Angel with its giant outspread wings, looks as if might be blown over by a strong wind. In fact it was built to withstand winds of 100 mph (160 km/hr). The sculpture is anchored to solid rock, 70 ft (21 m) below by foundations formed from 600 tons of concrete. To survive the harsh winter weather the Angel is constructed of special Corten weather resistant steel. It was made by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd in three parts: the body, weighing 100 tons, and two wings each weighing 50 tons. These components were transported by road to the site for assembly - the 40 mile journey took five hours.