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Northern Roots

Transforming 160 acres of post-industrial land into a unique community hub and visitor destination.

'It’s absolutely amazing for an industrial town like Oldham to have a project like this right in the middle of it.'
Simon, Environmental Volunteer

Northern Roots is transforming 160 acres of former mines, mills and landfill into a green space and visitor destination for communities, in the heart of Oldham. Over 8,000 local people have taken part in its arts, nature and heritage activities, and more than 400 have been supported through social prescribing for mental and physical health issues — with an NHS England report showing double the average improvement in participant wellbeing. The project has improved 18,000 square metres of habitat, created four new ponds for great crested newts, and planted over 2,500 trees and hedging plants, while a six-acre urban farm now runs weekly produce sales and food events. Community roles, paid one day a week and open only to Oldham residents, have trained Citizen Rangers, Heritage Champions and Young Producers, with over 60% of staff now recruited locally — half of them starting as volunteers or trainees themselves. Northern Roots shows how a genuinely community-led approach to derelict land can tackle health, education and environmental challenges together. Seven core activity programmes, from food and farming to business and enterprise, now structure the project’s work, with ambitions to go further still through a planned community membership scheme and expanded governance role for local people. 

Nomination details

Why this matters

Stretching from Alexandra Park, past Park Bridge and the River Medlock to Daisy Nook Country Park and Ashton-under-Lyne, the 160-acre Northern Roots site is an im-portant wildlife corridor. Two thirds of the site is forested. Habitats range from mixed deciduous and plantation forest to regionally important heathland, diverse grassland, wetland and freshwater. The southern part of the site, along the banks of the River Medlock, encompasses Bankfield Clough, which is a Site of Biological Importance due to its acidic birch-oak woodland and its grasslands.

Historically, the Northern Roots site has housed two coal mines, two cotton mills, an industrial railway, a large, combined sewage outlet tank and the council rubbish tip. Around a third of the site is former landfill and highly contaminated. Before Northern Roots, this green space had been considered a no-go area

By bringing the site under active management, Northern Roots is harnessing regenerative land practices to enhance the woodland, soil, grassland and wetland. These techniques aid nature recovery, boost biodiversity, capture carbon, improve soil health and air quality, and reduce flood risk through the Medlock Valley. To date, they have improved 18,000 m2 of habitat against biodiversity baseline. Overall, they seek to enhance the biodiversity of Northern Roots by 25%.

Northern Roots manages the health and diversification of the woodland on site to in-crease biodiversity, capture carbon and enhance air quality. They have sensitively thinned out areas of woodland with high concentrations of self-seeded saplings, open-ing up the tree canopy to enable light to reach the woodland floor. This enables many more native plants and birds to flourish.

Northern Roots has created four new ponds, as part of a Greater Manchester Ecology Unit project to provide new habitats for the endangered Great Crested Newt. Northern Roots is also a member of the Medlock Valley Nature Partnership which is working to improve the condition of the river and its environs for nature and local residents. They have installed a variety of sustainable urban drainage (SUDs) features to slow the flow of water through the site, improve its quality and reduce flooding.

They have planted over 2,500 trees and hedging plants, and removed an acre of invasive species. They’ve created six acres of Urban Farm and Market Garden and established a farm team with skills in organic, permaculture and natural farming. From here, Northern Roots has championed local food production, run popular weekly produce sales, and food-based events for the local community.

Northern Roots is working with Lancashire Wildlife Trust, City of Trees, The Environment Agency, Canal and Rivers Trust, the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit, Natural England and The Conservation Volunteers to deliver these improvements, create new corridors for pollinators and wildlife, and ultimately ensure that Northern Roots becomes part of one of the newly designated Nature Recovery Networks.

Impact

Oldham needs urgent solutions to complex social, economic and environmental problems. Northern Roots is a radical response, and we are proving that an innovative and holistic approach to harnessing urban greenspace can reduce the burden on health, social care, education and justice, while also growing climate resilience, prosperity and community. There are very few interventions that can address so many different social challenges simultaneously. Northern Roots is the biggest, boldest single project working in this space. 

By working with the communities they serve, they have refined their model of change and operating model and established seven core activity programmes to maximise impact:

  1. Food and Farming: Created the first six acres of Urban Farm, applying the farm team’s skills in organic, permaculture and natural farming. Run popular weekly produce sales, and food-based events attracting hundreds of visitors.
  2. Nature Recovery: Improved 18,000 m2 of habitat against biodiversity baseline, created four new ponds, planted 2,500 trees and hedging plants, and removed an acre of invasive species. Recruited and trained four citizen rangers.
  3. Natural Health Service: Supported over 400 people experiencing issues such as anxiety, depression, social isolation, addiction, cancer, diabetes and chronic pain. Secured a core commission from Oldham Integrated Care Board, a national first. Demonstrated double the average improvement to participant mental health and economic benefit, according to an NHS England impact report.
  4. Arts, Heritage and Culture: Engaged over 8,000 local people in arts, culture, nature and heritage activities and events at Northern Roots. Secured two grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and one from Arts Council England.
  5. Learning and Skills: Worked with 12 partner organisations in Oldham to extend and expand their educational work with local children and young people, including NEET young people; supported eight young people into paid work. Developed and piloted a learning programmes for 2027.
  6. Business and Enterprise: Supported a community of eight small businesses to set up and operate from site including Hive5 beekeeping and Yggdrasil Forge.
  7. Sports and Play: Explored future Sports and Play opportunities including nature trails, a bike hub, sports pitches and wild swimming pond.

Northern Roots believes in supporting people to have a strong stake in the processes of economic development and regeneration happening where they live. They are consciously and carefully convening people who would not ordinarily come together, around themes that unite us all, including food, family, heritage, learning, nature and fun. In so doing, they are building community bonds, improving physical and mental health, unlocking creativity, providing economic opportunities, and nurturing hope. 

They have ambitions to go further in building community power including exploring a community membership scheme, reviewing governance structures and further developing their community champion roles, skills and training offers that have had enormous impact: 

‘This role has inspired me to put effort into bettering Oldham.’ Leon, Citizen Researcher

Watch this 2 minute video on Leon’s experience here.

‘When I started this job I was not expecting to find my next career.’ Gemma, Heritage Champion

Read about Gemma’s story here.

Inclusion and accessibility 

Northern Roots has consciously trialled a range of mechanisms to enable everyone in the surrounding communities to feel able and welcomed to determine and shape what Northern Roots can be. They have pioneered a variety of paid and unpaid mechanisms to facilitate community participation and agency for greatest impact.  

Participation so far has included: 

  1. Volunteers: Volunteers are integrated into the organisation and have been invaluable in developing the site and shaping programmes. The range of volunteer roles will expand in 2026.   
  2. Community Roles: Only open to Oldham residents, these roles are paid for one day a week. To date Community Champions, Heritage Champions, Young Producers, Citizen Rangers and Citizen Researchers have received extensive training, and support to discover, build and share their skills and interests. Training has ranged from heritage research skills to species surveying, to quantitative and qualitative data collection.
  3. Social Prescribing placements: To date Northern Roots has supported over 400 local residents, referred by local GPs, hospitals and community groups. They offer patient, open-ended, person-centred programmes which allow participants to progress at their own pace. They provide a great deal of moral and practical support to enable participants to engage initially. Results have been life-changing in many cases.
  4. Alternate Provision, NEET, Young Offender & Care Leaver Work Experience placements: Northern Roots has supported around 50 young people so far with extended training and work placements, in partnership with specialist referring partners. These have ranged from local young people permanently excluded from school to young people leaving the care system. Four have progressed to full-time work, with one now working with the landscaping contractors on the Northern Roots building site.
  5. Student projects and placements: They have worked closely with Oldham College and Salford University to create curriculum linked projects related to Northern Roots, ranging from soil testing to bench building to music composition. They have hosted undergraduate and post graduate students on extended placements.
  6. School and Holiday provision: They have worked with local primary schools, Oldham’s virtual schools provision, and the holiday hunger provision, to welcome hundreds of school aged children to site.
  7. Creative Commissions: They have commissioned local professional artists and heritage groups to create a range of visual and performing arts pieces and events; they have also offered micro-commissions to local residents and groups who may not have a professional practice. These have ranged from a Mycelium themed light night event to a Viking Festival.
  8. Small businesses: They invite small businesses that align with our values to set up on site. Our beekeeper and blacksmith are now established, and they are exploring new partnerships to develop the Northern Roots visitor and learning offer.
  9. Staff: Wherever possible Northern Roots recruits locally with over 60% of their team from the local area. Half of current staff started as community champions, volunteers or trainees and progressed to staff roles.

Northern Roots has made it possible for people with a huge range of barriers and needs to step into volunteering, paid work, education, health services and nature, often for the first time. From young people building new skills or securing their first paid job, to those wanting to return to work or to feel less isolated. Bringing these different individuals together has unlocked unforeseen connections, conversations and confidence. People have blossomed and Northern Roots has been shaped by them.