He was brought up and educated privately by his mother Mary née Silley, a pious and devout woman.

As a result of the influence of his mother, Woodard's religious sympathies were Evangelical when he first became a student at Oxford, but, whilst he was there, he soon found himself strongly drawn to the growing Tractarian Movement and, as a result, developed Anglo-Catholic sympathies that he kept for the remainder of his life.

As a result of a controversial sermon - in which he argued that The Book of Common Prayer should include separate provisions for confession and absolution - he was moved to another curacy at St James the Greater, Clapton.

It was from these beginnings that he started to work full-time on promoting educational projects, resigning from his curacy in 1850.

The extent of his success was recognised in 1870 when the University of Oxford bestowed on him the degree of DCL and he was made Canon of Manchester Cathedral by Gladstone.