Over the next few years a thorough interior restoration of the church was undertaken so that that which had been ‘disgraceful was now called beautiful’. It was during the replacement of the old pews by the present ones that he discovered some parts of the old roof, there were spandrels painted blue with gold stars lying on their sides under the floors of the north and: south aisles supporting the joists.
In 1883 Rev. John Gough Poole was appointed. Barton hadn’t had a resident incumbent for many years. He did the most urgent work on the church and then built a new (now old) Vicarage, said to be ‘one of the best and most convenient clerical residences in the district’.
The enlarging of the School was his next effort and in the 1920’s he had the churchyard extended towards the road. The photograph shows him standing by the old boundary hedge.
He was also a notable craftsman as the Lychgate shows.
He retired in 1931 and a newspaper article (regrettably incomplete) about him appeared when he left Norfolk some time later.
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