Sorby was born at Woodbourne, near Sheffield in Yorkshire, and attended Sheffield Collegiate School. He early on developed an interest in natural science. One of his first papers related to the excavation of valleys in Yorkshire. In 1847, when he was 21, his father died, leaving him a comfortable private income. He immediately established a scientific laboratory and workshop at his home. He subsequently dealt with the physical geography of former geological periods, with the wave-structure in certain stratified rocks, and the origin of slaty cleavage.