If you stand at the foot of the steps leading into the sanctuary of the Friary church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Woodford green, you see what is, since the 1976 restoration, really a new church. The sanctuary has been transformed whilst the nave has been adapted to accommodate the many changes. Nevertheless, to the right of where you stand, is the chapel of St. Francis where the statue of the saint looks down on a memorial tablet placed over the Dowager DuchessÕ tomb. The church, the parish, the Franciscan community have undergone many changes since those sterling days of 1893 but the work has continued; the mass, the sacraments, the preaching, the education, the social activity, the myriad functions and actions of a busy parish. Times have changed since the Dowager Duchess, who lived in the full glow of Victorian imperialism, first devised her plans for the setting up of a Franciscan parish in Woodford Green. Nevertheless, Henrietta and her great patron saint, Òthe poor man of Assisi,Ó must be pleased at what has been achieved over the last hundred years. ;
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