[2] After two years as a schoolmaster at Sunningdale School he studied for the priesthood at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and began his ministry as a curate in Melton Mowbray in 1960.
He was subsequently Vicar of three parishes in the diocese of Sheffield - Oughtibridge (1963–72), St Cuthbert at Fir Vale and Brightside (1972–75), then Rotherham (1975–79).
[3] In the last two posts he also served as Rural Dean of Ecclesfield and Archdeacon of Doncaster,[4] and in 1967 he married Susan Hinman, with whom he had one son and three daughters.
Translated to Carlisle four years later [5] and entering the House of Lords in 1996 (where he was part of the pro-fox hunting Middle Way Group[6]), he retired in 2000 to live in Gargrave (near Skipton, North Yorkshire).
In retirement he continued working as an honorary assistant bishop within the Diocese of Bradford and in chaplaincy work in the Diocese of Europe, alongside being an active trustee of the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust,[7] until his death late in December 2008.