Chris Swan

Cable Street the Musical review By Christine Swan Some theatre is enjoyable, but not personal. Some is frivolous fun, but lacking in a deeper message. Having East End ancestry, Cable Street has a legendary status but maybe it has…

I forgot to post this last week: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/02/27/c...

The Despaigne family of Lille By Christine Swan Last year, I visited Lille at Easter. It is one of two French cities that are very easy to reach from the UK. The entire journey only takes about ninety minutes which makes it con…

This week's blog post exploring the Despaigne family from Lille, with images from my visit last year: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/03/06/t...

Albert Taylor – The patient’s friend By Christine Swan My grandfather died in the nineteen seventies. I remember him as being a wiry man with a full head of white hair, arms covered in regimental tattoos and stubbly chin. On Saturday …

This week's blog post is about my grandfather: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/02/20/a...

Daisy Betts – Nanny By Christine Swan Some of my earliest memories are of visiting my grandparents in Walthamstow. Every Saturday, my parents would drive my sister and I from south of the river to the north. There wer…

This week's blog: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/02/13/d...

Thomas Mallyon – Agricultural labourer By Christine Swan All Saints Church, Castle Camps By mym, CC BY-SA 2.0, I have previously written about my familial links with the small village of Castle Camps in Cambridgeshire. My terrifying gre…

Thomas Mallyon was an agricultural labourer from Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire and also my 3x great grandfather: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/02/07/t...

These are a few of my favourite things By Christine Swan A week ago on Monday was, allegedly, the most depressing day of the year. Christmas and New Year are now distant memories, and summer days are a long way into the future. It&#8217…

These are a few of my favourite things ... awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/01/30/t...

Six months of theatre trips – July to December By Christine Swan I love the theatre. Apart from my hobby of Kung Fu, visiting theatres comes a very close second. In 2025, I managed to squeeze in twenty nine theatre visits. I have already review…

This week's blog post: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/01/24/s...

2025 in review – the finale By Christine Swan I had booked a theatre weekend not realising that I was due to be teaching all day. This necessitated a rush to Birmingham New Street station to hot foot it down to London Euston …

Final piece of my review of 2025 - awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/01/16/2...

2025 in review – part 3 By Christine Swan The summer of 2025 was glorious. I had booked two outdoor theatre visits, and the weather was wonderful for both of them. The summer seemed to be filled with blue skies and warm t…

Still at it - this week's blog post awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/01/09/2...

2025 in review part 2 By Christine Swan In April 2025, I decided to explore one branch of my Huguenot and Walloon ancestors by travelling to Lille in Northern France. This is a very easy journey from London St Pancras, …

My review of 2025 part 2: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2026/01/02/2...

2025 in review – part one By Christine Swan As has become my custom every year, I end it by reviewing my travels and significant events. January is usually a month of unpredictable weather so I tend not to stray far. It is …

My review of 2025 starts here- awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/12/26/2...

Christmas in Rosebery Avenue revisited By Christine Swan When I was very small, I lived with my family in Whitecross St, in the heart of the City of London. At some point my dad acquired an elevated position in the Metropolitan Water Bo…

This week's blog is a visit to Christmases past: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/12/19/c...

Thanks, I also use LinkedIn - but probably nowhere near enough. Mastodon is my go to - no algorithm at all. I've had some great serendipitous moments including the marvellous #mosstodon and #lichensubscribe hashtags

I'm getting fed up with this platform. The app seems to log me out every other day, and the content seems more X like every day.

Looking over my shoulder By Christine Swan Next week I will be another year older. This is always a time of reflection but one conversation this week made me consider all of the incredible achievements that I have witnesse…

This week's blog is here awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/12/12/l...

Isaac Crudgington -Desperate ruffian By Christine Swan Sometimes, it is hard to know where to begin. During my family history research, which has extended over twenty years, a name leaps out from the page, and conjures an image. In th…

This week's blog makes for a fascinating read. My 3x grand uncle was a career criminal and was arrested over twenty times during his life. Together with his wife, Elizabeth Passingham, they were a prolific Victorian criminal couple. Read on: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/11/29/i...

Henry Welch Apthorp – butcher By Christine Swan As I have discovered with other families, my Londoner roots did not begin there. On my maternal side, the name Apthorp has a long history. Up until a few years ago, the Apthorp So…

In this week's blog, I explore the life of Henry Welch Apthorp, butcher of St Ives, Cambridgeshire awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/11/22/h...

Buy seeds, plant pots, bulbs etc. and start a gardening club. I'd also buy a wildlife camera because schools are great habitats. When you know what's there, you think about it more.

A street scene at night with lots of people wandering about looking at shops and market stalls. Christmas lights are strung across the road in the shape of a crown and street trees are brightly lit with fairy lights.

I really need this weekend away in London. Work stress just melts away the further I am from it. I still have PGCE trainees to place, with some trainees having had several schools withdraw the offer of a school placement. They are so upset and I really feel for them.

A visit to Delft By Christine Swan During the recent half term break, I visited the Netherlands as another of my flight-free, European forays. I had wanted to visit Delft because I had discovered an ancestral link …

My visit to Delft: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/11/14/a...

A trip to Rotterdam By Christine Swan During the half term break, I had planned another trip to the Netherlands for a break, but also to visit Delft, where the Blanchet family lived four hundred years ago. I set off o…

My recent trip to Rotterdam: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/11/07/a...

Fewer CEOs and top level managers, more doctors, more nurses, more beds, more doctor appointments, more ambulances and paramedics, greater capacity in A+E, re-examine the call classification system in emergency call centres, less data analysts and survey administrators, more clinicians.

Food banks provide help when people need it most. But real change means ending the need for them altogether.

Repost if you agree 💚

William Nelson Sloper – World War I soldier By Christine Swan It is at this time of year that we remember those who served their country during various conflicts, including, the supposed war to end all wars, The First World War. My father ha…

In this week's blog: awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/11/01/w...

You look great!

I was going to say, reminiscent of Booth's work, but someone already got in first. I use this all of the time in my family history research, most lived in the dark blue or black areas on the Booth map. It's shocking that we still need to talk about rampant areas of deprivation in 2025- but thank you

The hearth is where the heart is By Christine Swan As a small child, we had one coal fire in our rented house, and no central heating. I remember my bedroom being freezing during the wintertime, and I disliked walking across the l…

Forgot to post this yesterday - my latest blog post. It's a bit of a filler as my fireplace project isn't finished yet. And it's not the one in the photo below ( I wish!) awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/10/24/t...

I'm in the Netherlands currently, and visited beautiful Delft yesterday. I'll write about it in a future blog post. This photo was taken between the rain showers, which were pretty relentless.

A wander around Hammersmith and Chiswick By Christine Swan When I was studying biology at the University of London, our electron microscopes were located in a mundane office building in King Street, Hammersmith. We took the Tube, and trud…

A wander around Hammersmith and Chiswick awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/10/17/a...

Simon Pettet – ceramicist By Christine Swan In May 2023. Dennis Severs’ House was transformed for a few weeks for an exhibition of Simon Pettet’s beautiful reproduction Delftware ceramics. It was a sad time in m…

This week's blog post #DennisSeversHouse awfulrigourswretchedpay.com/2025/10/10/s...