Raised in Brighton in a Congregational family, he spent his formative years at Lancing College in West Sussex.
Ordained in 1943, Routley held pastorates in Wednesbury and Dartford before returning to Mansfield in 1948 as Chaplain, Lecturer, Librarian and Director of Music.
[citation needed] In 1945, Routley was placed on the committee for producing a new hymnal, Congregational Praise and eventually wrote its musical companion.
While in Scotland, he and Ian Fraser(2017-2018) organized the Dunblane Music Consultations out of which sprung the seminal methods and possibilities for structuring hymnody in the US and UK until the present.
In September 1982, Routley completed his last editorial project, the hymnal Rejoice in the Lord commissioned by the Reformed Church in America.
After giving an introductory lecture on the hymnal, he flew to Nashville on 7 October to address a church music conference.
Routley was posthumously named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, in 1985[citation needed] In 1944, he married Margaret Scott in the Chapel at Mansfield College.