We will now sing

      An old-ish hymn and psalm board from a church somewhere in Suffolk. We found it in one of those antique 'super stores' where there are dozens of old stalls all under one roof and in these interesting warehouses you sometimes find the odd gem or oddity that is really interesting.
      As hymn boards go this is a bit of a 'plain-Jane', made in oak I think, but with a little TLC and a polish after the lettering is added it should look the part. Then we have to decide where to hang it up, I'm going for the downstairs bog along with the Sunderland religious texts.

      I've got an old Methodist hymn book from somewhere in the family decades ago so when visitors pop in there to relieve themselves we'll encourage them to pick a number from the board and have a sing to while away the time while they are in there concentrating.
      The board was originally made as a memorial to Noel Charles Ley who must have fought in the World War 1 and survived so perhaps we should try to trace him and the long closed church that the hymn board came from. A project leading to yet another project you could say, but let's just get stage one over first.

      The task now is to clean it up, polish and repaint it and then decorate the name board at the head. I've got that part and the Victorian design worked out in my head so the next job is to work out the layout on paper ready to transfer it to the wood. Then the shakey hands can get to work doing the lettering.
      The congregation will now sing 'Onward Christian Soldiers', well it makes a change from canned music.