Former Lancashire Evening Telegraph editor Peter Butterfield has taken on a new role at Edge Hill College of Higher Education.

Peter retired from the East Lancashire-based daily paper on his 57th birthday in May last year.

But he’s about to put his experience to good use as a consultant to the college’s new Journalism BA degree course.

When the course starts in September he will lead the first year News Reporting and Writing module and will prepare students for their National Council for the Training of Journalists qualification.

He will also help to interview and select students for the course.Course leader Tony Turjansky said: “Peter brings a wealth of practical experience to the BA Journalism course at a senior editorial level, as well as his valuable and extensive contacts in the local newspaper business.

“Our first cohort of students will be working with Peter to set up and run a functioning college ‘newsroom’, and I know how excited he is by the prospect of shaping the development of these young journalists.

“Peter is one of a number of people working across the local news industry who will be teaching on this three-year course, and we are already lining up expert practitioners in radio, television and the internet to help us prepare and deliver those areas of practical journalism in the second year.”

Peter started his career with the weekly Gateshead Post before joining the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal as a district reporter at South Shields, Sunderland and Blyth.

In 1967 he moved to the Reading Evening Post as crime reporter and then became a sub-editor, assistant chief sub and then deputy news editor.

In 1976 he was appointed news editor of the Evening Post-Echo at Hemel Hempstead and in 1979 became chief sub.

He moved to Lancashire in 1980 as assistant editor of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, leaving in 1983 to become deputy editor of the Western Mail, Cardiff, before returning to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph as editor.

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