Roderick Thackray was born in June 1944 in a house which had earlier been a water mill.

Roderick studied at the Stockport College of Art and later worked in textile and wallpaper design before moving into the coal mining industry.

Roderick paints using oils on canvass. The towns you see are made up from his imagination and love of mills. Depicting a true northern industrial working town leaves the viewer mesmerised by his pure skill which also captures a time in history when these beautiful buildings thrived.

Roderick has published books about the Ludworth Moor Colliery, The Stirrup Benches Colliery and a novel entitled "Mineral Rights".