Methodist historian, born at Hutton Rudby, Yorks, with a Primitive Methodist background. After National Service he read Medieval History at Manchester and became a travelling secretary for the Student Christian Movement. He was for many years a lecturer in Victorian Studies at Sunderland Polytechnic and was a local preacher for over 40 years. He was an active member of the Wesley Historical Society and editor of the Bulletin of its North East Branch. His WHS Lecture, delivered in 1983, was entitled 'Piety, profit and paternalism: Methodists in business in the North East'. His other publications included The Christian Lay Churches on Independent Methodism (1977), A School for the Prophets on PM ministerial education (1981), The Travelling Preacher: John Wesley and the North East (1987) and an account of Primitive Methodism (2002) in the 'Exploring Methodism' series. With Stuart Miller he wrote a history of Sunderland (1988). He edited the diaries of the Sunderland chemist and local preacher John Young (1983) and, with Margaret Batty, Workaday Preachers: the story of Methodist local preaching (1995). He died on 24 December 2006.