At Kidderminster, he initially served under Thomas Legh Claughton as vicar, who he would later work alongside as the first Bishop of St Albans.

He was ordained (consecrated) a bishop (on which day he took up the See of Colchester) by Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 24 June 1882 at St Albans Cathedral.

[15] The National Portrait Gallery holds an 1883 Woodburytype photograph of Blomfield as Bishop of Colchester.

[17][18][15] While vicar at St Matthew's City Road, a paper he delivered in 1868 celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the church's foundation was also published.

[24] In it, he argued that the Bishop had "taken up a position that must gravely embarrass your relations towards the entire body of High Churchmen".