The Reverend John Hodgkin, minister, photographer and motorcyclist, The Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy.

Whittington in the Vale of Lune

Last updated 27 February 2006

Rev. John Hodgkin
Died 1941 buried in Whittington churchyard

The first job which the Rev. John Hodgkin had was as a Chemist in Oldham. It is possible that this first attracted him to the relatively new activity of photography as it is likely that he was forced to develop his own plates and prints.

He moved to Whittington as Curate to Edward Pigot in 1901, married Rose Alice Pigot, the Rectors daughter, and lived in No. 1 The Chestnuts. He was inducted as Rector of Whittington on the 18th April 1905, on the death of his father in law.

The Rev. Hodgkin died in 1941 and was buried in Whittington Church Yard in a grave which is no longer marked (if it ever was). Three years later the electric light was installed in the church in his memory.

He is known to have one son, Pat, who worked on the railway in Yorkshire.

John Hodgkin was a very keen, pioneer, motorcyclist who wrote a column in The Motor Cycle News under the name of Cyclops. He was an accomplished photographer and left a legacy of hundreds of glass photographic plates of Whittington and the surrounding district.

After his death his widow moved into South Lodge with her two unmarried sisters.

The thumbnails below link to larger versions of a few of the images left to us by Rev. Hodgkin, and now preserved for posterity by the Whittington Heritage Society, to whom we are grateful for the permission to reproduce the images on these pages.


Modes of local transport have certainly changed.	But cycling around Whittington on this could not have been easy.
Especially on the road to Hutton Roof	And in 2006 things haven't changed a lot but interestingly the telegraph poles have gone.
Main Street Whittington with No. 1 The Chestnuts being the first house on the left.	The road in front of the Chestnuts be metalled for the first time.
The population of Whittington today still seems to be predominantly Builders and Farmers.	And now a few photo's of transport in the area, starting with Arkholme station.
And what would seem to be a family picnic, but could be a Sunday School outing.	A close examination of this photograph shows a copper kettle hanging from the back of the cart
A group of visitors leave the Rectory	This family appear in a number of Hodgkins photographs
The village Headmaster, Jonah Evans started a unit of the Boys Brigade with a fife & drum band and equiped with rifles, which were later used by the Home Guard until they were issued with proper ones.
Wether these youngsters are Boys Brigade, Gamkeepers in the making, or Junior Poachers isn't recorded.	Like many of Hodgkins photographs we don't know who these people are, but the fact that they are characters is obvious to all
Beaters relaxing at Whittington Hall	A motorcycle hill climb up Buck Haw Brow on the B6480 outside Settle with Giggleswick Scar in the background.

Now a few photographs of the Hodgkin family which indicate The Reverends' passion for the motorcycle.

We believe that this is the Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy VC DSO MC the Vicar of Hutton Roof who was killed during the First World War. You can read about him in Gerald's Musings Jan 2006.

Part of the collection of motorcycle photographs..

Two Scott Squirrel's await transport to the Isle of Mann. Made in Shipley they won the Senior TT in 1912/13. It is likely that this photo was taken awaiting the ferry in Heysham.
It looks as though there was a motorcycle competition of some sort passing through Kirkby Lonsdale on this day.

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