He became Curator of Durham University Observatory in 1931, where he did much work on standardising the long temperature record that dated back to the mid-nineteenth century. The following year, he started collecting data at Moor House in the northern Pennines. He subsequently established a meteorological station close to the summit of Great Dun Fell at 847m, which recorded data at three-hour intervals from 1938 to 1940. This was the first series of mountain observations to be made in England.