In 1841, by the time he was nine years old, Appleyard was already apprenticed in Drighlington to his maternal grandfather Abraham Wormald, a stone mason.
At this yard he was permitted to concentrate on carving.
His grandfather's death in 1847 curtailed his apprenticeship at the age of 16, and he was back with his parents in Farsley by 1851, when he was 19 years old and already calling himself a "stone carver and cutter."
He plied his trade as a "sculptor, stone and marble mason and monumental mason" until at least 1891, although he tended to call himself simply a stone carver or sculptor.

In 1892 Appleyard appeared as a witness, on behalf of architect E.W. Lockwood of Huddersfield, in a Court case brought by sculptor Samuel Auty for payment for some carving work.
A comment from this case confirms that stones for architectural carving were roughed out by masons at ground level, and that the carving was completed when the stones were in situ on the building: "The stone for the gargoyles [was] roughened into shape," then later "he could not work in such an exposed position as that in which the stone had in the meantime been placed, but that when the weather was better he would finish the work."

The Beckett Street Cemetery record keeper knew him as a monumental mason.
By 1871 he had a workshop producing sculpture and designs in 16–18 Cookridge Street, Leeds, next door to architect George Corson, and he remained there as a monumental mason until at least 1891.
Appleyard was also in his later years a teacher of cabinet-making at the Leeds Institute.
In 1841, by the time he was nine years old, Appleyard was already apprenticed in Drighlington to his maternal grandfather Abraham Wormald, a stone mason. At this yard he was permitted to concentrate on carving. His grandfather's death in 1847 curtailed his apprenticeship at the age of 16, and he was back with his parents in Farsley by 1851, when he was 19 years old and already calling himself a "stone carver and cutter." He plied his trade as a "sculptor, stone and marble mason and monumental mason" until at least 1891, although he tended to call himself simply a stone carver or sculptor. 
In 1892 Appleyard appeared as a witness, on behalf of architect E.W. Lockwood of Huddersfield, in a Court case brought by sculptor Samuel Auty for payment for some carving work. A comment from this case confirms that stones for architectural carving were roughed out by masons at ground level, and that the carving was completed when the stones were in situ on the building: "The stone for the gargoyles [was] roughened into shape," then later "he could not work in such an exposed position as that in which the stone had in the meantime been placed, but that when the weather was better he would finish the work." 
The Beckett Street Cemetery record keeper knew him as a monumental mason. By 1871 he had a workshop producing sculpture and designs in 16–18 Cookridge Street, Leeds, next door to architect George Corson, and he remained there as a monumental mason until at least 1891. Appleyard was also in his later years a teacher of cabinet-making at the Leeds Institute.
John Wormald Appleyard