Floor Sanding
Waltham Forest

was the last staging post of that most influential of African explorers, David Livingstone. He stayed with the first vicar of St John’s Church before his first visit to Africa in 1870.

Although Leyton church dates only from the last century (apart from its 17th century tower) it retains several quirky features, including a wooden poor box portraying a lame man, an hour glass and an old beadle’s staff.

Several monuments remain to notable inhabitants who left their mark:

These include Sir William Ryder, a haberdasher who introduced woollen stockings into England from Italy. Raleigh was bringing tobacco from America at much the same time. We are entitled to ask: ‘who performed the better service to mankind?’

In the churchyard lies William Bryan, who died in 1733 and served sixty years in the army. Were he a saver, he would have died a rich man, earning thousands of those proverbial ‘King’s shillings’.

His period of loyal service was surpassed on the death four years later of John Strep at 94, having been vicar for 68 years. He wrote several volumes of history and biography, though sadly of little lasting value. In context, his venerable old age came at a price, for he outlived his wife and all his children.