A new self-guided walk from Oldham town centre to the woodlands of Northern Roots uses spoken poetry and brass band music to share experiences of recovery from substance use.

Called If You Could Speak to the World, the trail features seven spoken works of poetry. It 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 19 September 2026.

Poet Phil Davenport made the trail with a group of people with lived experience 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. Around 15 people aged between their 20s and 70s took part. The project was funded by the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Wheels and Walks programme.

The group met outdoors at Northern Roots through spring and early summer, mapping the route, choosing stopping points and recording sounds from the landscape. Davenport then mixed the recordings with fragments of brass compositions, written by sound designer and composer Sophie Cooper and played by Milnrow Band.

Stops 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 can follow the route by picking up a map at Northern Roots' new Welcome Building or accessing it online from September 2026. A series of in-person guided walks in September and October 2026 will launch the permanent audio trail.

Zac Blinston, a recovery community development worker from ROAR with lived experience of recovery, said: "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!"

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."

Dominic Pillai, curator of social engagement at Portraits of Recovery, said: "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."