A landscape can be close to home and still sometimes feel beyond reach. Getting there might take transport, suitable clothing and someone to go with. Feeling welcome once you get there matters too.
A brilliant new partnership between Rochdale-based arts organisation Breaking Barriers and the National Trust starts with exactly those practical realities. Kicking off in January 2027, it'll work with South Asian communities in Bury to connect neighbourhood life with Holcombe Moor and the River Irwell, using photography, filmmaking, poetry, singing and sound design.
Arts Council England has awarded National Lottery Project Grant funding for the first phase, which includes 30 weeks of free creative workshops. Those taking part will make journeys from their homes and neighbourhoods into the landscape, developing work from their own experiences and stories. What they create together will then be shared on Holcombe Moor in summer 2027.
For MagNorth, what's incredibly important is how the project brings cultural participation and access to nature into the same conversation. It recognises that an invitation to visit is more useful when people have the ability to accept it, and that local residents have their own stories to contribute when they do.
“Holcombe Moor is right on people’s doorsteps, but many in our communities face real barriers to reaching it,” says Parvez Qadir, Artistic Director at Breaking Barriers.
“This project gives people the support to make that journey, to tell their own stories creatively and to experience nature in a way they may never have had the chance to before.”
Transport for Greater Manchester is partnering with Breaking Barriers to support travel to the moors. United Utilities has provided waterproof outdoor kit, while National Trust rangers and volunteers will welcome the participants. That's a superb example of partnership working, isn't it?
Those arrangements are a substantial part of the project. They address the journey itself, rather than leaving individuals to resolve every obstacle before they can take part. Alongside them, the creative workshops offer time to become familiar with a place, return to it and decide what it means to you.
Breaking Barriers has worked in this territory before. Its Elevation project created an incredible, immersive sound walk on Blackstone Edge with communities in Rochdale, bringing local stories, poetry and voices into the landscape.
“We saw how powerful it can be when people hear their own stories out on the land, and we’re excited to bring a similar approach to Bury,” Qadir says.
That experience offers a useful starting point for the new work. Hearing a familiar voice or a story from the people in your neighbourhood in an open landscape, can change how you relate to it. The moor becomes somewhere you've helped to interpret, a place in where your experience has a presence.
There is a personal connection for Executive Producer Jodie Ratcliffe, who grew up in Bury.
“Having grown up in Bury, I know that chances to get involved in arts and culture are few and far between, especially for young people,” she says.
“It’s really special for me to bring this project home, and I can’t wait to see people connect, share their stories and get creative in the nature that’s been on our doorstep all along.”
The project has also created five paid roles for local people aged 18–25: Assistant Director, Assistant Producer, Assistant Sound Designer, Assistant Filmmaker and Assistant Photographer. The announcement says successful candidates will begin work in early November 2026, ahead of the workshops starting in January.
Paying young people to develop their practice gives the project another dimension. Alongside opportunities to participate, it offers real routes into the work of making and producing culture. For someone beginning a career, experience gained on a local project can provide a first professional foothold.
At Holcombe Moor, the National Trust team will bring its knowledge of the landscape and its restoration. The moor and Stubbins Estate form part of the West Pennine Moors, with habitats including blanket bog that support important wildlife. Connecting people with that landscape also creates opportunities to understand the care it requires.
“The entire team is very excited to partner with Breaking Barriers in this fantastic project ending unequal access and linking local communities to their surrounding nature, beauty and heritage,” says Nik Taylor, Area Ranger for National Trust Holcombe Moor.
“We are really looking forward to hosting visiting groups to the moor and sharing our passion for nature restoration.”
The funded first year is intended to establish the foundations for something longer. Breaking Barriers describes an ambition for a four-year creative journey following the River Irwell from Bury to Manchester city centre, leading towards a large-scale live performance on Holcombe Moor and, ultimately, a major public production in Manchester.
Those later productions remain an ambition. The immediate commitment is tangible: free workshops, supported journeys, paid creative roles and a sharing of participants’ work on the moor next summer.
The project is also supported by The Met Bury, Public Health Bury, the Wheels and Walks Fund, the GMCA Spirit Fund and The Granada Foundation.
Its value is going to emerge through the people who take part: the stories they choose to tell, the skills they develop and the relationships they build with one another and their landscape. Thirty weeks gives those connections time to grow. It also gives participants an opportunity to help shape what might come next.
Workshops are free and open to residents of Pimhole, Fishpool and the surrounding area. Local community groups and organisations can find out more about taking part by emailing breakingbarriersprojects@gmail.com.
Header image: View over Holcombe Moor ©Oliver Smith
