OBITUARY
As well as tributes and memories from Rob's family, brief mention was made at his funeral service of his love of history, particularly 'social' history and his work in documenting on video the lives and hardships of Hull and Grimsby's trawling industry.
Indeed, for those that knew Rob, this was only scraping the surface of his contribution to those subjects in the wider area of these great ports and their history.
For over a period of about 18 years, Rob made many films under the "Dovedale" label, something approaching 30 or more at the last count, mainly in conjunction with three people. I helped to make the first few with him, on the Humber Ferries, Hull City Transport, and the first half dozen volumes of Distant Grounds.
Alec Gill made a further 6 over the years dealing mainly with the social history of Hessle Road and the trawling and fishing families of Hull. Ian Wolstencroft co-produced several further videos on Humber cars, various car rallies, and a couple of titles on the North Yorks Moors Railway. In the words of one comment heard at his funeral, "if it was on wheels, wings or water, or ran on steam, Rob was into it".
Of all of Rob's output, I consider about a dozen or so of those films alone to be an immense legacy to leave to this city and region, and that in no way is suggestive that we should decry the rest. The first 5 volumes of Distant Grounds he made with me, plus the one on the Grimsby trawlerman, John Gittens, told the story of the 'industrial' heritage of the trawling industry, if we can call it that, of these parts, and they alone would stand as a great achievement.
But he went on to make another 6 with Alec Gill, a well-known and respected local historian, on the 'social history' of deep-sea fishing, with titles such as Fishing Families of Hull, Three Day Millionaires, and Arctic Trawlermen, that in themselves contribute a massive legacy to the trawling industry.
Put simply, in just those 12 films, almost the entire known visual archive of Hull & Grimbsy's trawling heritage were laid down for posterity. There are a couple of others, made by other people, but Rob's output is the major part of it. So much so that he constantly supplied archive footage to both the BBC and ITV for their use when such trawling footage was required.
Indeed, his films were so well respected that, as well as Alec and myself, several well-known and retired trawlermen from both banks of the Humber assisted with their knowledge and expertise in producing these epic volumes for a wider public. As may be expected, he was a dedicated supporter of STAND.
The films on the Humber ferries, Humber cars, KHCT, and others like the one on Sutton village, just add further weight to Rob's legacy, but not content with that, he made several further films in the Distant Grounds series, making 10 in the set in all, that focussed on individual trawler owners or companies. He was working on an eleventh volume, already collecting material for it, at the time of his untimely death. To produce so many, in just 18 years, is an astonishing achievement by any standard.
Yes, Rob loved history and above all, the people that made that history. His family and friends will miss him. And not least, Hull and Grimsby and the trawling fraternity will miss him. His friends know of many trawling families in these towns who have shed tears at the distant memories, good bad and tragic, that viewing Rob's films brought back.
Perhaps his contribution will be even more appreciated in years to come, as is usually the way with people that leave such a valuable legacy of work.
Rest in Peace, Rob, in your 'Distant Grounds'. May the weather be always fair, and the harvest good.
And Thank You ... for the Memories.
