What would the land say to us if it had a voice? What would we say back, if we had the chance?
This is a question Rochdale-based Production Company, Breaking Barriers are asking with their latest outdoor production Elevation. Created in collaboration with the diverse communities across the borough, the project is a creative response to the iconic moors that surround Rochdale’s Townships and explores the stories of the people who live there. It is also the voice of Blackstone Edge.
Elevation is described as: ‘An immersive journey along the scenic route of Blackstone Edge, using the technology of binaural sound on headphones, which creates an “audio 3-D effect”, to take audiences on a guided tour through the green space that has protected Rochdale for thousands of years.’
Sitting at an elevation of 1,549 feet, the Gritstone escarpment between Yorkshire and (what was) Lancashire, is a flatland that supplies a stunning viewpoint of Rochdale, Greater Manchester and, on clear days - even North Wales.
Elevation is actively encouraging audiences to slow down and take a moment to listen deeply to stories of the land (on headphones provided at the meeting point) while imbibing the natural beauty of this culturally and environmentally vital area of the Pennine hills.
So, how has Elevation been received in Rochdale and its communities? Jodie Ratcliffe is the Executive Producer with Breaking Barriers and has been central throughout to this dynamic taking to the hills – and her pride in what the team are currently achieving is palpable.
Jodie: “It's been amazing. It's achieved what we wanted it to achieve: To give local people a reason to come to Blackstone Edge and feel empowered to return in the future to explore further”
“A year or two back, we interviewed members of Rochdale’s global community [for another Breaking Barriers project] and we asked them: ‘What is your favourite thing about Rochdale?’ They all said: ‘The hills and the green space around the town’.”
The creative team went on to ask: ‘Where do you go? Where do you go walking?’ – and the response was: ‘Oh no, we don't go there. We look at it, we're proud of it, but we don't go.’
This recurring testimony led Breaking Barriers to dissect why certain members of the Greater Manchester community weren’t accessing their green spaces – and common narratives emerged: ‘I don’t drive.’ ‘I don't have hiking boots.’ ‘It's not seen as something that women do on their own.’ ‘It's not safe.’ ‘It's not a place where I feel represented.’
The Breaking Barriers team were dismayed – and clear that the green spaces around Rochdale belong to everyone – and the fact that these spaces are ours – had to be reinforced.
For the organisation’s forward-thinking (and frankly inspirational) Artistic Director, Parvez Qadir, the desire to widen access to space around his home was personal.
Parvez says: “I grew up in this place and as a child would visit Blackstone Edge and the surrounding hills. Being able to use the landscape to experience moments of personal solitude drove me to want to let people know that this space belongs to everyone.”
Jodie: “So, Elevation was born simply as an invitation to bring people to nature. We wanted to do that in the way that we know how, which is by telling stories – but essentially the piece is to give people a reason to come into green spaces and to feel that they’ve tested it, and they liked it – and it's possible.
The team were also acutely aware that there are often many barriers to ‘getting outdoors’ – and they’ve addressed these too:
“The piece itself is free, but we’ve also been able to break down the barriers of accessibility by paying for minibuses to get there, for community groups from all around Rochdale, as well as offering support to buy waterproofs. We try to provide people with whatever they need to join us. We're called ‘Breaking Barriers’ and we have removed as many as we possibly can.
“We've had young people from local primary schools, who have said the most beautiful things. An eight-year-old told us: "It was amazing. I think if you're upset and you wanted to be on your own, you could come here and walk around and get calm."”
“We've had quite a few people that have stayed after the walk to talk to us about their mental health and how this has helped them to take a breath and slow down. We've had people that have come on our walk and returned their headphones and continued walking, because they’ve felt safe and empowered to go and explore the land without us."
Workplace groups have also been accessing this innovative and inspiring project:
“Visitors have told us: ‘I've been so busy today. I've been in so many meetings. I've been sat at my desk slouched on Zoom all day – and here I am now on the top of the hill and I feel really good.’”
The project has worked with the ever-changing Pennine weather – and continues to create incredibly special moments for a wide-range of participants. There is a unique opportunity to join a yoga class for the Summer Solstice – and Breaking Barriers and partners have also staged breathtaking Sunrise and Sunset events.
Jodie: “Most people who’ve been taking part are from Rochdale, but we've had people from the other geographic areas including boroughs of Greater Manchester and across the Pennines into Yorkshire.”
And the commitment to diversity doesn’t end with allowing Yorkshire folk to get involved: “We've had groups from schools to South Asian Ladies who have never been up there. We've had people from all communities come up and have their own, very personal experiences.”
The multitude of benefits gained from a community project such as Elevation are obvious, but as an organisation, when the idea was first conceived, was the primary aim to get people outdoors from a mental and physical health perspective? Or was it to specifically to say to communities that don't feel invested and empowered: ‘This is your land?’
“It started from the point of: The community needs a reason to go there – so we're going to make a reason to get people to Blackstone Edge and to celebrate, I suppose because Rochdale is still portrayed by some in the press in a particular way. [Primarily by commentators who have never visited.]
“We wanted to create a piece that was [set] in the most beautiful landscape, looking down on the town and beyond to Manchester – and give people a sense of ‘Oh Wow’. Rochdale is incredible.
“We want people to feel like this space is theirs – and they can come back. We wanted to encourage people to come and use the space that they see every day in the distance and yet never visit.
“But we also wanted to bring a unique experience. At Breaking Barriers, we work with digital technologies – and we give everyone on the walk a pair of headphones so they can hear a wonderful story curated by our Sound Designer Jo Kennedy. We wanted to provide an outstanding experience that will stay with them forever, so – we created the Binaural Sounds. You might hear a gate close and you look around and it's not actually there. Then you might hear a bumblebee. We recorded birds and droplets of water and all of our recordings were made on Blackstone Edge.
“We have created a soundscape of stories, people and nature – all underscored with beautiful music by Tariq Emam - and wanted to showcase for six weeks this incredible art project that is made locally, but that can have a real splash and people will be talking about hopefully for many years. We wanted to integrate arts and culture, health and well-being and the great outdoors.”
Elevation represents the latest changemaking project from Rochdale’s Culture Co-op. After the district received Creative People and Places funding through Arts Council England, practitioners and key organisations from across the district came together – and as you might expect from a town with a history of working collaboratively – they formed a cooperative.
The Culture Co-op is a cooperative partnership for local organisations and communities in Rochdale and have greatly supported the creation of Elevation, alongside support from partners including Public Health Rochdale and Littleborough Arts Festival.
“We feel like this project isn't just ours – this project belongs to Blackstone Edge. It's something bigger than us. We decided quite early on that we didn't want to be ‘in charge’ of the walks. Our aim was to create the work and then hand it over to members of the local community to let it breathe and have them feel empowered to lead the walks.
“Before the project opened, we did a call-out for local people that like nature and like arts and would like to be paid to lead the walks. We had a chat with them on the phone to hear their story and then said ‘you've expressed an interest. OK, let's do it.’
“These 10 locals became our ‘Cultural Pioneers’. They joined a training session with us up on Blackstone Edge and we taught them how to use the headphone technology, and how to lead a walk and then – and they now run the walks each week.
“I think it is a very special thing as we've created employment and training opportunities, but also, it's meant that there isn’t an ‘ownership’ on this project. It's the people’s project.”
With 10 days still to go (until Fri 28th June) – approximately 500 Proper Northerners have so far participated in Elevation – which is an incredible statistic – and by the end of the run Breaking Barriers are estimating that figure will reach close to 700. Jodie readily admits the team had a grand vision and hoped the project would be well received, but at the outset were aware that the ask to come ‘all the way to Blackstone Edge’ – sometimes in the rain - was a lot. But the people have come with their muddy boots and curious minds, to be part of Elevation.
In common with many of the most considered and successful cultural projects, the Elevation team don’t have an exit strategy for 28 June – but instead are exploring how their efforts – and Blackstone Edge can continue to be a focal point in their community’s life:
“We're going to put it online [the audio] so people can download it and just plug their headphones in and listen to it on their own in the future. We're also exploring with our local college how to translate the stories into different languages.”
We hear a lot of (often overused) phrases such as – ‘Cultural Agency’, ‘Catalyst for Change’ and ‘Widening Participation’ when projects like Elevation are delivered, monitored and the outcomes recorded, but for Jodie and the team – testimony from one of the Cultural Pioneers reinforces why they do-what-they-do:
"For the past several weeks I have been having some heart issues, five visits to A&E now and I am waiting for more tests. I would like to say thank you - this is better than any medication!"
Elevation runs every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday until Friday 28th June.
Tickets can be booked HERE.
Travel bursaries are available for community groups.
This is a FREE EVENT and all are welcome.
Access information: The route is fully accessible to wheelchair users, and the pace of the route is slow and steady. There are no uphill climbs, the route has been specifically chosen to be flat with a path.
Breaking Barriers’ Access Consultant, Sam Jamil confirms: “It’s so important for green spaces to be accessible to wheelchair users, it allows us to enjoy the outdoors, the scenery around us and the beautiful nature. No one gets left behind”.
Header Image: Ed Waring
