Town and church

By 1870 Armstrong felt he had succeeded in most of the reforms he wanted to make in the parish. There were three Sunday services, as well as a daily service and special celebrations at feasts and festivals. There was a weekly Communion, and a surpliced choir using Hymns Ancient and Modern. Beyond the regular services there was a branch of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the St Nicholas Guild for young men, a Union of Church Workers, thriving church schools and a Sunday School, both in Dereham and at Etling Green, a library, shoe savings club and work fund. The District Visiting Society was an active support for the vicar and also ran the lending linen store and clothing club. The church itself had been ‘restored’, stained-glass windows installed and walls decorated to his satisfaction. When he had come to Dereham his parishioners, except for George Carthew the antiquarian, had been ‘evangelical to a man’ but by the 1870s they had mostly been won round. A high point had been in 1866, when the parish had presented him with a silver cup filled with 105 sovereigns in recognition of his work in the town and the establishment of the third Sunday service. Carthew spoke of the town's gratitude, explaining that the gift had been a spontaneous one from his parish. There had been no effort to solicit gifts. In his reply, Armstrong expressed his great gratitude to them (27/6/66). Industrial development encouraged by the arrival of the railway meant the town continued to grow and with it the need for a second curate. Permanent missions were set up in Toftwood, a fast-growing hamlet on the edge of Dereham where there were seventy houses by 1881, and also in Etling Green.

Not content with all he had achieved, in 1879 Armstrong embarked on a project to build a mission church on the Norwich Road out of Dereham to serve the rapidly expanding town in this direction. It occupied much of his time, until in March 1880 the new church was consecrated by the bishop and dedicated to St Withburga. An opening service was held on 4 April. Later that month Armstrong wrote in his diary that he had been in Dereham thirty years and would not attempt any more changes (20/4/80).