Life

Born in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 in 1861, Atherton spent his youth as a ploughboy but later took holy orders at St. Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

, and afterwards became Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of the parish church at Bolnhurst

Bolnhurst

Bolnhurst is a village in the Bedford district of Bedfordshire, England, about eight miles north of Bedford itself, and eight miles west of St Neots...

 in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, a post he occupied for 15 years.

Whilst there, he began writing what became an extensive collection of verse which caused some to regard him as the 'Lancashire Burns'. During this time he acquired the nickname Robin O' Bobs and the reputation of an eccentric.

He left the church in 1904, and became a 'wandering poet', living for a time in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 and Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 before returning to his native Kirkby to live at Pear Tree Farm, where he resided until his death in 1930. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Chad

Chad of Mercia

Chad was a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonized as a saint. He was the brother of Cedd, also a saint...

's, Kirkby parish church.

List of works

• Village Life and Feeling. Songs and poems. Greening & Co., 1901; 2nd edn, 1907 (1st edition published under the pseudonym "Rupert Upperton"; the 2nd edition appeared under his real name)
• Poems of Friendship and Sympathy. Ancoats Printing Works, 1914
• When the Robin Sings and other verses. London 1924 (published under the pseudonym "Robin O'Bobs")

• From Plough to Parsonage: My Life's Story. No date, privately printed

Sources and references

• Swann, John Randall, 1924. Lancashire Authors: Series of Biographical Sketches. St. Anne's on Sea: Robertson (printer)
• Knowsley Local History: Kirkby - photograph
• Lancashire Public Libraries: titles of poems