Sleeping on a washing line

A community group will be re-enacting the infamous 'Penny Hang' and '3 Penny Coffin' in Bolton.

The Victorians’ answer to homelessness was to put up a washing line for the night and charge people a penny to hang on it for a ‘safe sleep’, or, for thruppence (3p) they could sleep in a coffin-shaped box.

Recent government figures revealed that 726 homeless people died last year, with one seventh of all deaths taking place on the streets of the North West.The re-enactment is part of film looking at poverty, homelessness and isolation in Bolton.