THING OF THE WEEK

ROUTEFINDER… The Westmorland and Furness Way, a 120-mile walking route is now open to the public. It features breathtaking scenery and rugged terrain in equal measure. The route’s creators have broken the trail down into six (kind of) manageable chunks that take in the full gamut of British countryside quintessentialism including shimmering lakes, rolling hills, and rugged coastlines. It is crying out for some lunatic to try to do the whole thing in one go.

Manchester is among the cities whose population has dropped, according to the ONS. Credit: PNW

STATS… The Office for National Statistics has published its mid-year population forecasts for 2025 – yes, it takes that long to crunch the numbers – and they show a surprising trend across UK cities. Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Manchester all saw decreases in population – albeit marginal ones – compared to the same point in 2024. London’s population swelled by 0.4% over the period. One answer to the ‘what’s going on?’ question is born out in the stats for the wider Greater Manchester conurbation, which saw a London-esque population increase that could indicate a flight from the city centre to the suburbs. One to keep an eye on.

The tortoises were delighted with their new garden office. Credit: via Universal Containers

SHELLING OUT… The humble shipping container has, over recent years, proved itself to be among the most versatile of building materials. A few years back the idea of working from a steel box or having your dinner in one would have seemed ludicrous. Just yesterday we saw a shipping container disguised as a polling booth in Prestwich.

Universal Containers has just delivered a converted 16ft container to Blackpool Zoo that recreates the heat of the African Sahel for a group of sulcata tortoises – some of them ended up at the zoo having been seized by UK customs from smugglers. Infrared lamps in the timber-clad container mimic the sun, although they might have remained unplugged during recent heatwaves. You have heard of cat on a hot tin roof, what about tortoises in a sweltering steel container?

The new-look market has a feature canopy.Credit: via planning documents

MARKET MAKERS… Tameside Council has secured eight new traders for Ashton Market ahead of the relaunch of the refurbished venue in autumn. Located beneath a feature canopy the new-look Ashton Market, a key component in the regeneration of the town, will be home to some mouthwatering new tenants later this year.

They include Asian street food outfit Oppa Kitchen; Royal Bagel by Danish Bakes, a Scandinavian-style bakery; Mamma Julie’s, which specialises in hearty breakfasts; and Market Grounds Coffee, which does not require an explainer.

Naanwich will serve up kebabs and Wilson’s Fruit and Veg is there for those looking for a slightly healthier option. It is not all about food though – what market would be complete without a stall selling handcrafted trinkets and another to provide the valuable key-cutting service? Its.2.Say and Alf’s Key and Shoe Repairs will do just that.

WORK EXPERIENCE… What’s more daunting as a student than stepping out of the comfort zone of three lectures a week into the muck-and-bullets world of business for a period of work experience? If you are in pursuit of a taste of the development world you could do worse than fire the lovely folk at Glenbrook an email, as a few wide-eyed future surveyors found out this week.

The week-long odyssey taking in the developer’s various sites across the North might turn out to be more worthwhile, and exhausting, than all of the students’ theory work to date and had director Guy Butler reminiscing about his own taste of work experience at the Land Authority for Wales. “The smell of ammonia from the print room will always stay with me,” he said. The smells the young bucks will remember were slightly less toxic: SpudLad in Wigan, Popeyes in Leeds, and Starbucks in Rochdale were all paid a visit during the week.