I'd love to see a photograph of Walter Ody - I feel I know him so well. Born in 1833 at Hayes Knowle Farm in Purton, Walter was the third youngest of Noah and Sarah's nine surviving children. Noah was an expert at keeping the proverbial farming plates spinning and even when the boys were still quite young he managed to organise several leases. Walter married Elizabeth Russell in the Spring of 1861 and the census of that year sees them living at Lord Bolingbroke's Flaxlands Farm with his widowed mother Sarah, his sister Leticia and Elizabeth's two year old son William James Russell. So what else do I know about Walter Ody? Well I know he served the community in various roles within the parish and in 1894 he was one of the first members to be elected onto the new parish council He was also a trustee of the St John's Chancel Trust, charged with maintaining the magnificent St John memorials. As a more mature man he proved he was ready to embrace new technolog...