In the 1990s they were doing some restoration work on the church in Woodford, and they found a pickle jar in the roof.

The pickle jar contained a message from the Reverend Christopher Smyth, who was rector the last time the church was restored in the 1860s.

This record has been deposited with the hope and conviction that it may be of interest to those who shall in ages perhaps come to repair the roof of the chancel. It may be like a voice from the dead.

As well as describing the architecture of the church and the restoration work, Smyth provided some details of the times for his future readers.

The trade of the village is that of shoemaking, about 200 in all working for the Army and foreign trade. A good shoemaker with his boy will sometimes earn 22 or 23 shillings a week. The agricultural labourer 10 or 11 shillings except at harvest.

The cattle plague has raged here in England for about a year – one in twenty have died. None lost in this Parish. The Cholera too is present chiefly in London.

He was not a fan of affordable housing.

Population in 1851 about 720, in 1861 – 912. This increase caused by the building of 50 new houses in 1859 and 1860 in the upper part of the valley forming a block of buildings called New Town. This addition to the population has by no means improved the Character of the Parish. It invited the refuse of neighbouring close parishes to seek a home here… The rent of cottages runs from 1 shilling a week to £6 a year.

Then there was the mysterious human heart.

During the progress of the works a human heart was found wrapped in a cloth together with box enclosing it in the soffit of the half circular arch on North side of Nave and 4th arch from the tower.

The heart was sealed into one of the pillars of the church where it remains to this day.

The teddy bear is a more recent addition.

The church has recently had its flower festival, so it was full of wilting floral displays.

But my favorite thing about the church was the strange creature clinging to the outside.

It was hot this afternoon, not good weather for wearing a woolen coat. Any shade was welcome.

Here’s a few more pictures from the Woodford area.

This evening our guests Jo and Jeff started feeding a flotilla of battle swans. You can perhaps learn about their respective characters from the fact that Jo spent a lot of time talking to the swans to make sure that they all got a fair share of the Hovis, while Jeff got bitten.