Victor Skipp
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Victor Henry Thomas Skipp (1925 – 24 December 2010) was an English local historian, art collector and amateur philosopher, who left his estate to
Kettle's Yard Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities. History and overview Kettle's Yar ...
in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
.


Life

Brought up in an "austere Nonconformist family", Victor Skipp "was exposed to a very different life serving with the
Marines Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included Raid (military), raiding ashor ...
during WW2, and different again with post-war
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
". He graduated from Cambridge University in 1950 before teaching in secondary schools. In the 1960s and 1970s Skipp lectured at Bordesley College of Education, as well as running extramural research in local history at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
.


Collection

Skipp built a collection of Modernist art and literature which he and his wife Pat arranged around their home, an old farmhouse in
Hopton, Suffolk Hopton is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk (district), West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located just south of the Norfolk border on the B1111 road between Stanton, Suffolk, Stanton and Garboldisham, in 2011 it ...
.The Estate of Victor Skipp
/ref> His art collection included work by
Ivon Hitchens Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 d ...
,
Bob Law Bob Law (22 January 1934 – 17 April 2004) was a British painter and sculptor.Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 397. ...
, Linda Karshan and
Alison Turnbull Alison Turnbull (born 16 March 1956, Bogotá) is a Colombian-born British painter and sculptor. Early in her career, Turnbull worked as an invigilator at the Serpentine Gallery. Exhibitions Solo exhibitions * 2001 "Houses into Flats," Muse ...
. Skipp took enormous care to consider the possibilities created by arranging disparate works of art in relation to each other: Upon his death he left his estate to
Kettle's Yard Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities. History and overview Kettle's Yar ...
in Cambridge. An exhibition of objects from Skipp's collection showed at Kettle's Yard in 2013–14.


Selected works

* ''Discovering Sheldon: a brief history of a Birmingham parish from Anglo-Saxon to modern times'', Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1960 * ''An Eighteenth Century Farm Labourer's Family'', London: Oxford University Press, 1963 * ''Out of the Ancient World'', Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967 * "The place of team-work in local history" and "The use of local history in the schools", in Victor Skipp & H. P. R. Finberg, eds., ''Local History: objective and pursuit'', Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1967 * ''Honest to Man: a religious alternative to Christianity'', Beaconsfield: Darwen Finlayson, 1967 * ''Medieval Yardley: the origin and growth of a West Midland community'', Chichester: Phillimore, 1970 * ''Crisis and development: an ecological case study of the forest of Arden, 1570–1674'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978 * ''The Centre of England: Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, East Shropshire, North Gloucestershire'', London: Eyre Methuen, 1979 * ''The Making of Victorian Birmingham'', Birmingham, 1983 * ''A History of Greater Birmingham: down to 1830'', Studley: Brewin, 1997 * ''Industrial Revolution 'Then' and 'Now', or, Understanding Globalization: (the Birmingham experience)'', Diss: Greyhound Books, 2002


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skipp, Victor Henry Thomas 1925 births 2010 deaths Local historians of England British economic historians English art collectors 20th-century art collectors