Layfield, Stephen (Steve)

Composer

b Leeds, W Yorks 1960. The Yorkshire Martyrs Sch, Bradford and Keele Univ (BA, Maths and Physics). He has taught science since the mid-1980s, mostly in schools in and around W Yorks. Up to 2000 he lived at Idle, nr Bradford, Yorks, when Head of Science at St Bede’s Grammar Sch in Bradford; in 2000 he moved north to Tyne and Wear to be Head of Science at Emmanuel School Gateshead, where his Biblically conservative teaching of world history brought a storm of protest from atheist and materialist opponents. He belongs to Welbeck Road Evangelical Ch, Newcastle. Beginning to compose hymns around 1988, in the early 90s he worked briefly with Christopher Norton, qv. He has composed and played music for new Psalm versions and other Scripture paraphrases, and written in all about 100 tunes; his CD He to whom wonders belong appeared in 1993. No.249.