By the time of Edward Roberts’ resignation in 1921, the right to appoint the vicar had been sold by the Eustace family to the Guild of All Souls, and Anglican institution promoting prayer for the dying and the failful departed.
The appointment of Percy Conyers Barker reflected this change. He was a devout priest who devoted his life to his vocation. He introduced an early morning communion service alternating with Great Sampford. No longer did Hempstead have a vicar who would bag a brace of partridge on his way to a funeral, or stop for a pint after Matins. He did, however, allow marvellous fetes in the Vicarage garden.
He also took the lead in approaching the Royal College of Physicians about the state of the church which he had inherited in Hempstead, which was still without a tower after the collapse forty years earlier. In 1933, the College provided funding to rebuild the tower, but the money ran out when the tower had reached nave height and work was abandoned for another 25 years.
Towards the end of her conversation with Hazel Weedon, Margaret Drane remembers Percy Conyers Barker in his later years, when Margaret was a young child.
“A very highly educated man, but not streetwise. His wife was very much more down to earth, but when she died he completely lost it. He used to wander about, he didn’t know what he was doing: his poor old overcoat was green with age He lost his false teeth once and and thought he’d left them in church: half the village looked for them and they found them behind his bed! But he was ever so hard working, he just was …different.”