In 1854, Kitchin was an examiner in Mathematics at Christ Church. He soon left Oxford to become Headmaster of
Twyford Preparatory School in Hampshire in 1855. Kitchin served as Oxford's first Junior Censor of
non-collegiate students from 1868 to 1883. He was also Select Preacher at Oxford for 1863–1864 and Whitehall Preacher for 1866–1867. He took a break from Oxford life to live at
Brantwood, in the Lake District, from 1869 to 1871, a property later bought by his friend
John Ruskin. While there he undertook assignments for the
Clarendon Press, including working on the proofs of Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson's Icelandic-English Dictionary. In 1883, Kitchin was appointed as
Dean of Winchester and in 1894 as
Dean of Durham. While
Dean of Winchester Kitchin was responsible for refurbishments within the Cathedral, most notably the restoration of the mediaeval
reredos behind the High Altar, usually known as 'The Great Screen'. The restoration was initially entrusted to the architect
J D Sedding. However, Sedding's design for the scheme did not meet with general satisfaction and was not implemented. Thereafter, Kitchin personally took over and master-minded the entire project, essentially as his own architect, commissioning the many new statues needed to populate the restored screen. When completed, this was acclaimed as one of the Church of England's major artistic ecclesiastical restorations of the 19th century. Kitchen joined the
University of Durham in 1894 and admitted the first female students to the university. In 1910, when the University of Durham was given a new constitution, Kitchin was elected as its first
Chancellor and remained in office until his death two years later. He died on 13 October 1912. He is buried on the west (right hand side) of the entrance path to
Durham Cathedral next to Bishop
Alfred Tucker. ==Personal life==