The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought about a rapid decline in agricultural profits, and farmers in Suffolk soon began to find themselves in financial difficulties. The wages of farm workers were reduced, and the continuing rise in population meant a surplus of labour and a shortage of housing. The social divide between farmers and their labourers increased, and the old system of workers living in with their employers ceased, putting further pressure on restricted living space. All these factors, and the introduction of the New Poor Law in 1835, contributed to a growing sense of injustice and discontent in the rural workforce. Between 1815 and 1851, Suffolk was subject to frequent outbreaks of rioting, arson, and attacks on threshing machines and on the newly established Union Workhouses.
Although no such protest demonstrations seem to have occurred in Bardwell, there were instances of arson in the neighbouring parishes of Stanton, Barningham and Hepworth, and the fast growing population of Bardwell must have contained many who shared the grievances of the rioters. The village had 556 residents in 1801, and by 1851 this figure had increased to 893, its highest level. After that point, the population began to decrease again, and by 1901 it had fallen to 668, a pattern of growth and decline which was reflected throughout the county.
    The resultant need for accommodation meant that many Bardwell houses were divided and sub-divided for multiple occupation during this period, including some which had once been the homes of prosperous yeoman farmers. Most of these have now been returned to their original status as single dwellings. Some of the divided tenements must have been very cramped, as the Census records show large families in residence in many of them. It would be wrong to imagine that they were living in squalor, however; Whites Directory for 1855 describes Bardwell as "a large, well-built, pleasant and healthy village", with a joiner and wheelwright, a smith, a butcher, a cooper, a builder, two bricklayers, four shoemakers, four shopkeepers, two school mistresses, two millers and thirteen farmers. There were also two public houses, the Green Man and the Six Bells, as well as three beer-houses, one of which was the Dun Cow.

Some new buildings, particularly cottages, were erected during the nineteenth century, and others were altered or extended. The newer part of the Rectory, including the front hall and dining room, and the drawing room window, was built by Mr. Adams directly after his appointment as Rector in 1815. The charming Gothic exterior of Bell Cottage also belongs to this period, and the Dun Cow was considerably extended in two phases during the century. The Windmill was built in 1829, replacing the old one that used to stand near the top of Knox Lane. The only large house to be built was Bardwell Manor, erected in 1884-85 as a home for Sir Patrick Blake, who was lord of the Manor of Bardwell Hall, and his new bride Emma.
The small school set up in 1723 with Thomas Reade's endowment was still operating in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1842, the disused Quaker Meeting House was let as a schoolroom, with the condition that the doctrines of the Church of England were not to be enforced on the children of dissenting parents. This was not ideal, however, and in 1854 Mrs. Anna Maria Dunlap, the mother of the Rector, gave £500 in her will for the building of a new school. Her son contributed another £500 for the purpose, and an acre of land on which to build the school was given by Sir Henry Blake. In 1900, the school had the capacity to take 140 pupils, and the average attendance was 115. The school, of course, continues in use to this day in its original building.

Another innovation typical of the time was the Reading Room, opened in 1867. It was founded by George Kersey Cooper, who was land agent to the Duke of Grafton, as a free gift to the parish. Mr. Cooper had a considerable amount of land in Bardwell, and long-standing family connections there, and his intention was to give the working men of the village somewhere they could go to read and relax in their spare time, at the cost of a penny a week. The Reading Room was a red brick and flint building, fitted with a fireplace and tables and seats for fifty men. Draughtboards and dominoes were supplied, as well as newspapers and periodicals, and there was a small room for the provision of coffee. Implicit in this well-meaning benefaction were the Victorian ideals of self-improvement and sobriety, as of course one intended function of a Reading Room was to provide an alternative to the pub for recreation. This particular building seems to have fallen quite quickly out of use, however, as in 1896 another Reading Room was set up, using rented premises.

In 1828 the Enclosures Act allowed the large area of Bowbeck Heath to be taken into cultivation, thus bringing about perhaps the most significant change to the landscape Bardwell had seen for centuries. By 1832, the open heath had been divided into large fields, delineated by quickthorn hedges, and new roads had been created. Most of the land went into the Euston Estate, but about 25 acres was awarded to the poor of Bardwell, in lieu of their right to cut fuel on the heath. To administer this, the Charity Estate built a coal house in Church Lane in 1830, and formed the Fuel Estate in 1831. The allocated land was let out, and the rents used to buy coal, the first distribution of which was in 1832.

The New Poor Law of 1835 instigated the hated Union Workhouse system, but in Bardwell the Guildhall still served as sought-after accommodation for the aged poor. A vacancy would be announced, and the names of candidates were then left at the Rectory; the successful applicant was decided by vote at a meeting of the Trustees. By the end of the century, however, reflecting the decline in population, demand for the apartments was falling. In April 1901, four were unoccupied, three of which had been empty for a year, and no applications had been received. The Parish Magazine at the time commented: "It is a curious contrast to the crowded state of Bardwell a few years ago."

In the middle years of the century, many parish churches were insensitively remodelled in accordance with the tenets of the Victorian High Church movement, and Bardwell was no exception to this. In 1853, a year after taking up his post as Rector, the Reverend Dunlap embarked on such a 'restoration'. The Chancel was almost completely rebuilt, and its floor lowered; the Crofts table monument was cut in two and the side slabs placed on either side of the sanctuary; the old high-backed pews were taken out and replaced by the benches now in use, and a new pulpit and reading desk were fitted. The gallery, or 'singing pew', which spanned the nave at the west end was taken out, and the organ placed there. This was a barrel organ, presented to the church in about 1815 by the previous Rector, Henry Adams, and was the first musical instrument used in the church. Of course, it could only play a few set tunes, and so in 1860 the crank and barrels were replaced by a keyboard and pedals, and at the same time the first hymn books were introduced. During the course of the work, several fine mediaeval wall paintings were discovered, but the High Church movement required interior church walls to be entirely plain, so after having sketches made of the paintings, Mr Dunlap proceeded to have them plastered over.

While Mr. Dunlap was firmly establishing the Victorian principles that were to define the Church of England for so many years, the nineteenth century also saw the rise of non-conformism in Bardwell. Thomas Bullock is credited with founding the Baptist church in the village. He was a cooper, and in 1822 he had his own house certified for worship, something that was often done in the absence of a permanent meeting place. The building of the chapel soon followed, and this was certified in 1824, and a house was built for the minister, probably with the £70 granted to Bardwell in 1827 by the Baptist Building Fund.
The Wesleyan Methodists also had a following, and in 1835 a barn at Place Farm belonging to John Jeffes and in the occupation of John Bobby was certified for worship. This was probably fitted up to be a permanent meeting house, and is shown as such on many maps, but it seems to have fallen out of use by the 1870s. The Primitive Methodist Chapel, built on the site of the Quaker burial ground, was opened in 1894, replacing the old Quaker Meeting House which they had taken over in 1882.

The uncertainty of employment in farming made the army seem a viable alternative for adventurous young men, and many Bardwell boys chose to take the Queen's shilling. In the middle of the century, the shadow of war fell heavily over the village when, in 1854 and 1855, seven soldiers from Bardwell died fighting in the Crimea. They were all young men, the oldest being twenty-eight and the youngest, William Feakes, no more than nineteen, and the wall tablet put up in the church in their memory is thought to be the only memorial of its kind in Suffolk. In the churchyard lies another soldier, Henry Addison, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1859 for his courage in saving the life of Lieutenant Osborne during the Indian Mutiny, at great personal cost to himself. The story of Henry Addison can be found in the 'Bardwell People' section.

Researched by Ruth Stokes