Toddy Hoare trained and practiced as a sculptor, served as a soldier with the 15/19 King's Royal Hussars, and spent time with the Missions to Seamen in the Europoort, Holland, before ordination and twenty-five years as a rural parish priest in North Yorkshire (known locally as Herriotshire). He used sculpture to illustrate Scripture and theology. Latterly, on retirement, he reflected on life and where God was to be found with poetry, some based on peace studies in Oxford. He is now in North Yorkshire, retired from parish life.