This happened in the days of the Joseph Arch agitation, when the agricultural labourer's condition was being hotly discussed throughout the country.
The vicar's heart was stirred, for he knew better than most how hard these conditions were at Coombe and in the surrounding parishes.

He took up the subject and preached on it in his own pulpit in a way that offended the landowners and alarmed the farmers in the district.

The church wardens, who were farmers, then locked him out of his church, and for two or three weeks there was no public worship in the parish of Coombe.

Doubtless their action was applauded by all the substantial men in the neighbourhood; the others who lived in the cottages and were unsubstantial didn't matter.

That storm blew over, but its consequences endured, one being that the inflammatory parson continued to be regarded with cold disapproval by the squires and their larger tenants.