It derives from the Old Norse skerping and bekkr, meaning barren land by a beck or stream.

[5] Thomas Cooke the machinist was the school Headmaster in Skirpenbeck where he also created precision scientific instruments such as microscopes and telescopes.

He was the first living self-taught artist to have a painting hung at the Tate in London, titled Cat and Mouse.

Without telling her husband she wrote to Sir Herbert Read and he paid Lloyd a visit to see his paintings, and bought a couple of them.

In 1958 Lloyd held his first one-man show at (the late) Arthur Jeffress Gallery in London.