Poetry, brass and recovery: a new way to walk in Oldham

A permanent audio walking trail co-created by people recovering from substance use is set to launch in Oldham this September, blending spoken-word poetry with brass band music.

The self-guided walk called If You Could Speak to the World will take visitors on both a physical and an emotional journey from Oldham town centre out into the woodlands of Northern Roots. The public artwork has been commissioned by visual arts organisation Portraits of Recovery for this September’s Recoverist Month. It also marks the opening of Northern Roots, a new community hub and visitor destination set on 160-acres of urban greenspace, on Saturday, September 19, 2026. 

Portraits of Recovery hopes that the commission offers a new way of experiencing Northern Roots, by “combining walking, art and lived experience to explore the connections between recovery, wellbeing and the natural environment”.  

To create the trail, which features seven spoken works of poetry, celebrated poet Phil Davenport collaborated with a group of people with lived experiences of substance use and recovery from Turning Point’s Rochdale and Oldham Active Recovery (ROAR) service, with support from the team at Northern Roots Natural Health Service. 

Throughout spring and early summer, the group met outdoors at Northern Roots, exploring the landscape as a source of inspiration for making poetry and recording sounds. Together, they shaped every aspect of the trail, from mapping the route and identifying key stopping points to capturing the sounds of the landscape itself.  

Davenport then mixed the recordings together with fragments of brass compositions, written by sound designer and composer Sophie Cooper and played by Milnrow Band.  

Around 15 people aged between their 20s and 70s took part in the project, which was funded by the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Wheel and Walks programme. For many, it was their first experience of working creatively with a professional artist.  

Locations along the trail include Alexandra Park boating lake, the beehives at Brook Mills Gardens, the Tip Road path and Park Bridge. Different routes are available, with the shortest path taking in all seven locations, being two miles long. Longer trails run up to six miles.  

Walkers will be able to follow the route by picking up a map at Northern Roots’ new Welcome Building or accessing it online from September 2026.  If You Could Speak to the World is part of Recoverist Month and Oldham’s Greater Manchester Town of Culture Rising Up programme.   

Through exhibitions, performances and creative events Recoverist Month places the arts at the centre of conversations on substance use and recovery. Led by Portraits of Recovery and held every September to mark International Recovery Month, this annual programme brings artists, communities and audiences together.  

Zac Blinston is a recovery community development worker from ROAR, who has his own lived experience of recovery from substance use. As a professionally trained actor, who has previously run his own theatre company, Blinston was particularly keen to be involved with the audio trail, saying: "I think this is a really important project for the town.  

"Oldham has such a rich history and is a larger-than-life place, despite being one of the most deprived boroughs in the country.  This audio trail is breaking down barriers and showing that poetry is for everyone - it's only words after all!  

"The trail is both a physical journey and a figurative one. I hope that people who follow it feel a sense of hope. We're all on a journey - it's just that some people's journeys are harder than others."  

Davenport said: "This is a sound walk like no other. We aren’t delivering a nature trail or a local history, but something much more unusual. We will be guided by the voices of Oldham and Rochdale people in recovery: people who are intensely aware of the dark art of damage and the honesty needed to pull away from it.   

"Their poems are the narrative for the walk, which takes us out of a busy, chaotic town centre, to the edge of where people are and then out beyond, into the woods and the wilds.  

“Human separation from nature is disastrous for humanity and for the rest of the world. So why not walk in nature in the company of people who are experts in both damage and healing, looking for ways out of our usual selves? Beyond our familiars, into the new.”  

Dominic Pillai, curator of social engagement, Portraits of Recovery, said: "Phil did a fantastic job demonstrating that poetry takes many forms and can be accessible to everyone.  

“Group members embraced the project with honesty, courage and imagination, drawing strength from experiences that are too often overlooked and misunderstood. The result is a powerful public artwork that invites audiences to experience both recovery and the landscape through the voices of those who know about life’s need for resilience, possibility and change.  

“The voices of people with lived experience of recovery will now form part of the Northern Roots experience for years to come.”  

A series of in-person guided walks in September and October 2026 will launch and celebrate the permanent audio trail. Book free tickets  

Recoverist Month events are taking place across the north west throughout September 2026.