TRIBUTES have been paid to a veteran journalist who worked for more than half a century for a regional daily newspaper, who has died aged 84.

Harry Mead, of Great Broughton near Stokesley, whose daughter Helen is a columnist for The Press, had a weekly column in our sister newspaper The Northern Echo for 50 years.

The Press' editor Nigel Burton, who worked with Harry when head of news at The Northern Echo, paid tribute, saying: "Harry was a legend at The Northern Echo and his writing was warmly received by readers across North Yorkshire for five decades.

"In many ways, he was a man ahead of his time. He loved the beautiful Yorkshire countryside and was an active campaigner for the preservation of the environment.

"I’m pleased his daughter, Helen, continues the family tradition writing for The Press.

"He will be much missed, and our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends."

Peter Barron, former editor of The Northern Echo, said: “Harry was a lovely, evocative writer, with a deep knowledge of the natural world. He wrote about the countryside with great affection and authority and, as a result, he was a columnist who attracted a large and loyal following.

“He also loved poetry and could summon up a verse for every occasion. A kind, gentle, down to earth, no-nonsense man, who wrote about the north in a glorious way. Rest in peace, Harry.”

Harry began his journalistic career straight from grammar school in Redcar in 1956, turning down the chance of university to ensure he didn’t lose his beloved Shirley, who died last year.

He began as a reporter with the Middlesbrough Gazette before becoming its columnist and then, in 1969, transferring to the broader canvas of The Northern Echo, where his first column was published in March.

His love of the Yorkshire countryside was a major theme of his writing, warning how we despoil it at our peril.

“You’ve got to have progress, but the industrial revolution rarely benefited the people at the epicentre of it," he said.

"East Cleveland’s iron industry boomed for 25 years and after that it was largely decline, but when you have messed up your environment, it is very difficult to regain prosperity.

“Ryedale escaped that, and now has a booming tourism industry but they are facing fracking – if that goes ahead, they are in danger of repeating what happened in east Cleveland.

“You can never really restore beauty. The human soul needs beauty as well as bread, that’s where I stand.”

Poetry was also a major thread through Harry’s columns, and for a time he included a snippet of verse with every column.