Description

Admin History:

Colin Stubley was born in 1945, and lived in the house his grandparents and parents lived in Hardy Street, Hull for most of his life. He was diagnosed with a genetic condition in the connective tissue which, resulted in him being, partially sighted, very hard of hearing and with respiratory and joint problems. He attended a school for the partially sighted in Coventry. He completed his school education back in Hull and won a place at Sheffield University, where he studied English and Philosophy. He then enrolled at Leeds University, where he completed a PhD thesis: Free Will and Literature in the Seventeenth Century, although his doctorate was never awarded.

After leaving Leeds, he worked for Merseyside and Beverley councils in their planning departments, but his eyesight deteriorated to such an extent that he took early retirement in the eighties. He tried moving to Spain, to write and to alleviate his respiratory problems, but this didn't work out and he returned to Hull. He did voluntary work in various ways. For example, he used his one serviceable eye to read to completely blind people.

He began a post-graduate course in IT at Humberside College of Higher Education in 1988 but his sight problems prevented him from completing it. He next went to London City University to take the combined solicitors/barristers course. After successfully completing this, he qualified as a barrister but could not find a chambers that would allow him to complete his pupilage.

Again returning to Hull, Colin threw himself into setting up the City's Shopmobility scheme and he also completed a history degree at the University of Hull. Throughout his life, and health permitting, Colin travelled extensively. Although a true highbrow, Colin had some down-to-earth Yorkshire enthusiasms. With his almost exhaustive reading of the classics, and his ability to recite entire poems verbatim, conversation with Colin was as stimulating as it can be. He was an avid follower of test and county cricket who seemed to commit his annual Wisden to memory. He loved Rugby League and attended Hull FC and Great Britain games regularly. He also liked football and boxing.

Colin's carpe diem approach to life was cut short around 2010, when the frequent falls he was suffering led to a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease. He had been working on a history of his beloved home town, and did his best to finish it before he lost his mobility but was unable to do so.

He died in April 2011. A friend described Colin as a truly extraordinary person who would have achieved more than his considerable accomplishments but for the obstacles that are so often placed in the way of the disabled.

Description:

Research notes primarily covering the period of the English Reformation to the Glorious Revolution, (c.1530s to 1680s), but does include notes on other areas such as Roman and Celtic East Yorkshire and Mediaeval Yorkshire. Some of these notes were compiled for courses of study at university whilst other were for his own research on the history of Hull.