Ward aroused unpopularity in the village for his pacifism, for trying to stop the bellringers bringing beer into the belfry, and for rebuking wealthy parishioners for hoarding food.
He was supported by a group of anonymous friends who arranged for him to receive a stipend and established him in the house called Ravenscroft in Wolseley Road, Farncombe, which was to remain his home for the rest of his life.
Even before arriving in Chiddingfold, Ward had established 'The Road', as he described it 'not a society, not an order, but a method of training in mystical prayer', which eventually comprised some hundreds of people; the first admitted, in March 1911, was his colleague in the Sunday School Institute, Deaconess Phyllis Dent.
Ward's clientele was to include such Anglican leaders as Eric Abbott, Dean of Westminster; Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Evelyn Underhill, herself a notable spiritual director and writer.
After the Second World War Ward began to curtail his activities, and stopped his touring ministry in 1949 following a heart attack; he handed much of his work to the network of spiritual directors he had established, especially the Reverend Norman Goodacre, then vicar of Coniston Cold in Yorkshire.
In 2004 a sculpture of Ward by Charles Gurrey of York, showing him kneeling in prayer, was added to the west front of Guildford Cathedral, alongside images of Michael Ramsey, Evelyn Underhill, and Bede Griffiths.