Corrie favourite Lisa George will swap the cobbles for a horse and carriage this festive season. It’s confirmed that she’ll play Fairy Godmother in this year’s magical family pantomime Cinderella. Running at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon from 07 December 2024 to 05 January 5 2025.
Lisa George is best known for her role in ITV’s Coronation Street. She first appeared on the cobbles in 2011 playing Beth Tinker. Lisa was nominated as Best Newcomer in the 2012 annual TV Choice awards.
Other TV credits include the BAFTA nominated television adaptation of the Jacqueline Wilson novel The Illustrated Mum. Also episodes of British serial dramas Casualty, Holby City and Emmerdale, and she appeared in Dancing on Ice in 2020. Theatre credits include the stage musical production of Prisoner: Cell Block H.
Lisa who will join the previously announced David Ashley in Cinderella said:
I love panto! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to be on stage joining in the fun and games. So I’m so happy to be back, playing Fairy Godmother in Swindon this year. Wand at the ready. I’ll see you there for some panto magic!’
Lisa George is Fairy Godmother
Wishes coming true
Cinderella promises to make all your Christmas wishes come true. There’ll be laughs galore, sensational singing and dancing, bucket loads of audience participation and a touch of fairy godmother magic.
Theatre Director of the Wyvern, Laura James said of the casting: ‘It’s fantastic news that Lisa will be joining us in Pantoland this year! From the Corrie cobbles to the sparkling Swindon stage, we can’t wait to welcome her and see the magic she’ll be bringing to our wonderful audiences. All alongside the rest of the fabulous cast in Cinderella this December.
Poor Cinderella works night and day but dreams of a very different life and with an invitation to the royal ball it looks as if her wish may yet come true. Will her wicked stepsisters succeed in ruining Cinderella’s dreams of happiness. Or will her Fairy Godmother and loyal friend Buttons be able to thwart their devilish plans? Pop on your glad-rags and join us at the ball to find out!
Athelstan Takes Centre Stage as Malmesbury gets ready for the Athelstan 1100 – 27 events over 24 days!
Residents, volunteers and businesses in Malmesbury are getting ready to host a bumper programme of 27 events. It’s all to mark the 1100th anniversary of the accession of King Athelstan – the first King of England. And it all begins on Friday June 28.
This weekend will kick off four weekends of events – many of them free. All involving more than 100 local businesses and community organisations. There’s 2,500 tickets reserved for talks and performances and 1,000s of visitors are expected at free events. All including:
Over 150 ‘diggers’ for Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig), 80 artworks displayed on banners
Exhibits of international at the Athelstan Museum
25 degree students involved as part of their studies
200 re-enactors
300m of bunting
New trails across 100 miles of footpaths and cycle paths and over 100 volunteers.
Athelstan Takes Centre Stage
Leading historians of the world
This small Wiltshire town will also host four of the world’s leading historians on King Athelstan and Anglo Saxon history:
Author and podcaster Tom Holland
Writer and documentary maker Michael Wood OBE
Author Professor Sarah Foot and ….
… Phil Harding, field archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology. But best known for his role on the popular tv series Time Team (now Time Team Digital).
Athelstan Takes Centre Stage – Phil Harding
Phil will be on hand to look and talk about some of the finds during the first weekend of events, known as the Big Athelstan Dig. It will involve twelve test pits being dug in and around the town with members of the public digging, guided and supported by Cotswold Archaeology and a trail for visitors. It’s well known that King Athelstan lies in Malmesbury Abbey. Although his remains got moved two hundred years after his death and their location now remains a mystery.
Said Phil, ‘It’ll be an opportunity for local people to have first hand experience of their past through digging holes in the ground, under proper supervision. I’m looking forward to coming to Malmesbury to see what they find’.
An extraordinary exhibition
There’ll also be an extraordinary exhibition of rare Athelstan artifacts at the Athelstan Museum. The first of its kind in the world – on display from July 2.
Cllr Campbell Ritchie said: ‘We’ve called our anniversary project Athelstan 1100. We’re excited that after almost two years in the planning we’re ready to showcase Malmesbury on the national and international stage. And welcome thousands of visitors to our events throughout July. Our town was of exceptional importance in the Anglo Saxon period.
‘Thank you to the many people who’ve come together to make this all possible. They’ve put on a series of main events and pop-up events, walks and trails which offer appeal and experiences to all, with many free to attend.
Good vibrations
‘Everywhere you go in Malmesbury in the next month will have an ‘Athelstan’ vibe. From our shops promoting Athelstan 1100 and locally produced goods such as:
T-shirts
Sausages and pies
Ice-cream and fudge
Tea towels, ceramics, bags, beer, publications, books and information.
Not forgetting the banners, bunting, the museum exhibition, Big Athelstan Dig, craft fair, picnic, re-enactments, performances and talks.’
924 AD
It was in 924 AD that Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, became king of Mercia and Wessex, the first steps on his journey to becoming the first King of England. His relationship with Malmesbury lie deep in the DNA of the town and he chose Malmesbury Abbey as his buriel place.
2024 marks 1100 years since Athelstan became King. And a team of community organisations, local schools and individuals have worked together to create a series of events to mark this iconic moment. They include:
The Athelstan Museum
Malmesbury Town Council
The Warden and Freemen of Malmesbury – who trace their origins to Athelstan
Malmesbury History Society
Wessex Week
Malmesbury Abbey
Athelstan Players
The events
The first weekend, 29th and 30th June, showcases the opening of the Athelstan Pilgrim Way. That’s 100 miles of footpaths and cycleways linking churches across North Wiltshire. There’ll be a performance by junior school pupils in the abbey and the launch of an album of songs by local musicians inspired by the characters and events in Malmesbury’s historical past. And the start of the talks programme.
July 6 and 7 will be Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig with community archaeology at sites around town – even in people’s gardens! Visitors will be able to follow a trail and meet professional archaeologists who will help interpret finds.
July 13 and 14 will feature dramatic live performances at Malmesbury Abbey telling how Athelstan became the First King of England. Malmesbury’s beautiful cloister gardens will be buzzing with a children-focused Big Athelstan picnic and an immersive Anglo-Saxon food, drink and craft fair.
July 20 and 21 will see the creation of ‘Anglo-Saxon Malmesbury’. That’s a re-enactment village and hands on experiences, in Malmesbury’s river-side park at St Aldhelm’s Mead. And the opportunity to see Athelstan’s Anglo-Saxon warriors in action.
94 Ermin Street Stratton. Today it’s an estate agent but this unprepossessing building was, it’s arguable, the crucible of the Morse family’s commercial empire.
Records are somewhat convoluted and not terribly clear. But an edition of the Stratton Outlook, from way back when, states he (Levi Lapper) was born ‘in the shop opposite the Ermin Street Methodist Church which was owned by his father Charles Morse’. And that corresponds with the description that exists of Ebenezer Morse’s shop. That being 94 Ermin Street. But it’s rather hard to verify any of this. The only address that directories and the British Newspaper Archive give is Lower Stratton. And there seems to be no address for Levi’s birthplace beyond the registration district of Highworth.
So! While we can say that it’s possible, more than likely even, that Primitive Methodist Charles Morse ran the shop at 94 Ermin Street first and that Ebenezer later took it over – we can’t say this for certain.
Anyway! If you’ve any knowledge of Swindon’s history at all, the name Morse ought to be familiar to you.
94 Ermin Street Stratton – once the shop premises of Ebenezer Morse – and probs his father Charles Morse before him.
On the image below, from Swindon’s Local Studies collection, you’ll see that the sign above the door, of the grandly-titled North Wilts Emporium, says ‘E Morse’. That’s Ebenezer Morse, a brother to Levi Lapper. This image dates from around 1905. According to the back of the postcard this photograph features ‘W. Wilson and W. Silk, two of the many assistants’.
This shop sat on the corner of Swindon Road and Ermin Street.
But by 1881, Levi saw opportunities in the new Swindon growing around the Great Western Railway. Along with his department store on Regent Street he owned a chain of other shops in England’s south west. He also ran a mail-order business. He cut a fine and important civic figure too – but here is not the place to go into all that. If you want to know more about Levi Lapper Morse then the My Primitive Methodists websitecarries a decent history of the man.
Morse’s Ermin Street shop
The building is listed as a draper and grocers as far back as the 1848 directory, under Lower Stratton. So Charles Morse, we think, was in business from the early 1840s at least. Though it could have been the 1830s. But the information available is scant and unclear.
And that is pretty much all there is to say about 94 Ermin Street. So why, I hear you say, have I included it here? Well there’s a good reason. And that reason is Charles Morse’s son, Levi Lapper Morse (1853 – 1913). Levi Lapper grew up to accomplish bigger and better things – in many areas – than ever his father did. As Frances Bevan’s Radnor Street Cemetery blogpoints out, Levi opened one of Swindon’s first departmental stores, which until the 1960s stood on the present site of WH Smith’s in Regent Street, Swindon.
A Nexus
The significance of this building then, is that it serves as a link between two other buildings in this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series:
And at the centre of this Victorian brickwork triangle is Levi Lapper Morse. For he’s a literal cornerstone of Stratton Methodist Church – in the blog I link to above there are photographs of these cornerstones. And for a period he lived in Granville House. And of course had involvement with his father’s business at 94 Ermin Street.
Grano Lab Italian Restaurant you’ll find in what was Gaetano’s on Victoria Road in Old Town. Yes, before you say it, we do have a goodly number of Italian eateries in the town. We’re blessed that way. But this one is offering something a little different.
As their website says: ‘Grano Lab is an Italian restaurant focused on serving authentic Neapolitan pizza and fresh homemade pasta.’ And fresh pasta is sooooo good.
According to their website the idea for Grano Lab arose when a pair of Sicilian-born chefs saw a gap in the Swindon market for a different dining experience.
Having run the kitchen in a popular pizza restaurant in a neighbouring city, Marco Mazzara and Luca Cusimano felt they wanted to create something for the good folk of Swindon.
So, using authentic Italian ingredients these chefs have created their menu of:
Classic and signature pizzas
Unique shapes of fresh egg pasta crafted in-house every day with sauces exclusive to Grano Lab.
Plus there’s a curated Italian wine list and desserts straight out of heart of Italy.
Below is an extract from the menu showing the in-house fresh pasta dishes. You can see all the menu on the website here: https://granolab.co.uk/menu/
Exract from the Grano Lab menu
What we ate
Between the three of us we enjoyed:
Pizza (fresh from the wood-fired pizza oven)
The pappardelle Grano Lab with wild boar and dark chocolate ragu
Focaccia with the most fabulous dip
And, I think, a caprese piccolo salad
Rounded off with an affogato. I bluddy love an affogato.
The chefs doing their thing at Grano LabThe pizza oven in Grano LabTable setting – loved the mismatched crockery
And the food – I reckon it’s fair to say we enjoyed every morsel. I’m looking forward to returning soon – I’ve got my eye on several menu items!
Pizza at Grano LabCaprese saladFoccacia and divine dipThe wild boar with dark choc ragu and pastaAffogato with pistachio ice cream
Recently completed, the community painting of the mural began during the blossom festival on the 28th April. Using a ‘painting by numbers’ method, visitors had the opportunity to pick up a brush and contribute to the artwork.
Caryn Koh and Paul Exton from Artsite designed the mural. It incorporates local landmarks and imagery to evoke Swindon’s rich heritage. The wall facing the Mother Language Memorial features the word ‘welcome’ in many of the languages spoken across Swindon.
A two-year project
This mural project marks the culmination of two years’ of improvement works in the GWR park as part of the Historic England Heritage Action Zone initiative. The National Trust have part-funded it.
The past two years has seen transformation on the park. There’s the addition of a new blossom circle, formal gardens, park furniture and information boards.
This new addition will surely bring a shot of glorious colour to the western side of the park?
Phillip Harland, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ Team Manager for the area, said: ‘We’re delighted to see the transformation of this SSEN substation. From a plain building to this fabulous work of art that everyone can enjoy.
‘We’d like to thank Swindon Parish Council, Artsite and the local community for all of their efforts to bring this project to life.’
With thanks to South Swindon parish council for the use of their photographs.
While we’re talking about the GWR park here’s a post about the First World War memorial in the park:
