Welcome to the forum!
I have some friends from wigan and have been down there a couple of times... Tbf they where my ex's friends so I won't be down there for that reason again... :P

Have you read much material? The community will be able to give you some great points in the right direction... I've only been involved just over a month now but I can spend literally all day at work online doing whatever I please so I've got thru my share pretty quickly...

With the whole going it alone thing I ain't advising from experience here but I would suggest joining clubs volunteer work ect... I know its gonna take time and shit that you might struggle to get but you only need one friend then you can quit and that friend can lead to a pretty large social circle...

Dave xX