CHRIS KETCHELL (1944-2011)
By
CHRIS SLATTERY
Chris died on January 31 2011 after a long illness at the Limes Residential home in Driffield.
The first time I met Chris was for an interview for the Swine History Project. This was on the 10th of November 1993 for a place on the project. A team from Hull College on Community Action were undertaking restoration work on St. Mary Church, Swine. The Local History Unit set up the Swine Village Project, on Community Action. I had seen the vacancy in the Job Centre. My interview with Chris went well and later that same day he offered me a place on the team, at the Local History Unit.
It was a privilege to know him and work with him in the Unit. Chris had an influence and passion for Local History that he passed on to others, in the classes he taught or the talks he gave to people. He did much work for the HELP Conservation Group aims to save buildings in Hull under threat of demolition. The “Walk right back” walks he led, on most of them, never went very far in 2 hours, but they were great walks, and the vast amount of publications Chris produced on Local History are still with us.
We will always remember Chris, the man who taught so many of us in his “Know your place” Local History classes and who led and advised the Local History Unit’s many projects. Sadly all this came to an end in 2006 when Hull College closed the unit down, and Chris was devastated as his whole world, which was the Local History Unit, collapsed after 22 years in his charge. Thereafter his health deteriorated and he sadly died peacefully in his sleep. His memory and his work will live on in the Hull and District Local History Research Group.