The church was restored in 1830 and again in 1877–1886 by Frederick Josias Robinson, the diocesan architect, when a new chancel arch was built, the nave was reroofed, new seating installed, the walls were cleaned of plaster and whitewash.

[3] The church was severely damaged by a fire which was started by Suffragettes on 5 June 1914.

[4] The fire virtually gutted the building leaving the tower and spire in an insecure condition, and the walls only standing, the glass in the windows were totally destroyed, and the stone in the walls was damaged.

It was restored by the architect W. D. Caroe and the contractor Cornish and Gaymer of North Walsham, and reopened on 14 April 1916.

One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet.