THING OF THE WEEK
TREE TALK… Mayfield Trees A so-called “intelligent garden” is coming to Mayfield Park in Manchester. Following its debut this month at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, the Avanade Intelligent Garden—designed by award-winning duo Tom Massey and Je Ahn—will become a part of the city’s newest park. The USP of this particular garden is a type of AI technology that effectively allows trees to talk. TreeTalk “enables two-way communication between park staff and trees”, according to the team behind it, and will allow our leafy friends to alert their carers if they are under stress. Creepy.
Ready, set, curl. Credit: via Emily Hallinan
CURLING… Fancy yourself as a bit of a Rhona Martin? From November you will be able to do your best impression of Scotland’s Olympic curling legend at New Jackson in Manchester. The Curling Club, which bills itself as the “UK’s favourite alpine-themed entertainment destination”, has picked Renaker’s Manchester neighbourhood as the location for its expansion out of London. The venue will open in November, just in time for Christmas. Don’t worry about putting too much force on your stones, the micro-climate at the New Jackson skyscraper district will no doubt provide some welcome wind assistance.
Lake Coniston is one of three Barry will swim end to end. Credit: PNW
TRIPLE CROWN… Roy Barry, who is partner and head of development at Brabners (and clearly a bit mad), is currently training for the Three Lakes Swim Challenge. The event will see him don his wetsuit to traverse the length of the three largest bodies of water in the Lake District – Windermere, Ullswater, and Coniston – in the name of charity over the course of three dates this summer. He is raising money for the Seashell Trust and has already received donations in excess of £4,200 at the time of writing. You can contribute to the pot here.
Trains on the West Coast Mainline were severely disrupted yesterday. Credit: Place North
TROLLIED… The West Coast Mainline was plunged into chaos yesterday causing significant disruption to passengers heading north and south. Travellers travelling to Manchester from Glasgow were redirected to Edinburgh and then onwards back to the North West via York – a detour that added hours to the journey and grey hairs to all affected. Passengers desperately trying to plot a route home were told the delays were caused by a train “hitting an obstruction”. Sounds serious, they thought, while scrolling through Skyscanner for a route around the problem via Amsterdam.
But it wasn’t. What does it say about the state of our public transport system if the whole thing can be rendered unusable by one rogue shopping trolley in Oxenholme?
Credit: via Aberfield
STUMPED… Toft Cricket Club near Knutsford has entered the pantheon of world records. Thanks to Freedom, part of the Yorkshire-based NG Bailey Group, the village club is now home to the world’s largest cricket wickets – an eye-catching installation standing 8.5m tall. The project took three months to complete and is part of a fundraising drive for a new pavilion. Crafted from four-tonne Douglas fir trunks, renowned wood artist Andy Burgess sculpted the wickets, with engineer Freedom providing a team of six, along with the heavy plant and machinery required for a fully safe installation. The giant sculpture breaks a 50-year-old record previously held in New South Wales, at the Don Bradman Oval. I think you’ll find this is the real Ashes, Australia.
