Writer’s famous journey recreated for 21st century

WRITER George Orwell’s famous journey across England is being recreated 80 years on.

In 1937, ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ - which included a trip through Macclesfield - shocked the country with its depiction of poverty in the north. During his trip, Orwell attempted to live on working men’s wages as he travelled from Birmingham to Stoke-on-Trent, also covering Leeds and Liverpool. Orwell even walked the 11 miles from Rudyard Lake into Macclesfield where he got a bus to Manchester.

Now a project is underway to retrace Orwell’s route using 21st-century technology.

Through a special anniversary website – mirror.co.uk/wiganpier2017 – it aims to tell the human stories behind the housing crisis, welfare cuts, the ‘gig economy’, refugee crisis and Brexit Britain, and take you behind the doors of foodbanks, homeless shelters, factories, churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, colleges and social housing.

If you have a story to share, get in touch via wiganpier@trinitymirror. com, tweet at @wiganpier2017, or write to the Wigan Pier Project, Daily Mirror, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AP.