Our Beginnings
Kernel IT Services was founded in March 2020 by George Hodges.
George first grew an interest in web design after he took over development duties of his father’s motorcycle shop’s website – gvbikes.co.uk – at the age of only 13. The website had been built a number of years before and was quickly looking dated compared to competitors. He decided to rebuild the site from the ground up, focusing on making it simpler to navigate and additionally ensuring it functioned suitably on smartphones and tablets.
A Passion For Good Web Design
One of George’s favourite hobbies is motorcycle speed hill climbing. In a very basic explanation, it is a tarmac time trial – the quickest to get to the top wins!
Back in 2015, his club’s website was looking increasingly dated running on code written in the early 2000s. With what he had learned from his father’s website, and keen for a challenge, George took it upon himself to build a new site. With over 50, 000 photos and 2000 event results, it was a major job but really got the club’s online presence up to speed.
A Career
George continued to build his skills and at 16 years old joined an events company as an IT apprentice, spending one day a week studying at Bridgwater College. Upon completing his College course, he was promoted to IT Assistant and became the main contact in the office for all local PC and technical problems.
Having previously only built websites using drag-and-drop systems, he spent his time at the company improving his programming skills and fluently learnt HTML and CSS. He also gained an extensive knowledge of C# and, working alongside another developer, built a number of websites using the language.
Going International
It was at this company that George reaffirmed his love of travelling. He was lucky enough to travel to a number of international society conventions for work, to Abu Dhabi in 2017, California in 2018 and Edinburgh in 2019. At each of these events, he helped run the auditorium presentations shown to hundreds of delegates, as well as provide general IT support for the events team.
Outside of work, he was keen to stay busy and took on the leadership role at his local Scout Network group. In Summer 2019, alongside his friend, he organised and ran a trip travelling across Europe, visiting 8 countries in under 30 days. Dry bobsleighing on the Latvian Olympic course, and Skydiving in Prague were highlights. The whole trip was documented on a blog website he created and is still available to read today.
Growing
Whilst working and developing websites at this company, George carried on developing websites as a hobby, branching out into many different areas including E-Commerce and Photography websites.
In addition to websites, he was regularly providing IT Support to his local community and later, further afield.
Kernel IT Services
George had always wanted to own and run his own business and in 2020, he finally decided to take the plunge. On 1st March 2020, he formed Kernel IT Services.
By the 2nd anniversary in March 2022, Kernel had gained a sizable number of regular clients, becoming a go-to business for technical support in the Blackdown Hills.
In September 2022, George moved the company into Taunton. It now operates opposite his father’s business in Penny’s Cottage, Whitehall – a short walk from the town centre and just 5 minutes from Taunton train station.
Our Most Popular Services
Areas We Serve
We are based in Penny’s Cottage, Whitehall – in Taunton, Somerset.
The main areas we serve are Somerset, Devon and Cornwall but we also have customers as far away as Stavanger, Norway.
Our in-person support is generally limited to Taunton and the surrounding area, but we can make exceptions. Please contact us if you are unsure.
We can also guarantee quicker support to those in the Churchinford and Hemyock areas.