A weekly editor just shy of the 30th anniversary of him taking the hot seat has retired.

Accrington Observer news supremo Mervyn Kay has taken voluntary redundancy after parent company MEN Media announced it was shutting the office and centralising editorial functions in Manchester.

He is only the fifth editor in the paper's 122-year history, previous incumbents having served for 54, eight, 25 and 15 years respectively.

The 61-year-old, who enjoyed his last day in the office yesterday, started his career on the Observer as a trainee aged 19 in 1967.

He spent most of the 1970s as a reporter on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph but was then head-hunted to return to the Observer as deputy editor in 1978 and promoted to editor in June 1979.

During the last three decades he has seen major changes in newspaper production, from hot metal to today's highly-computerised operation.

He said: "It's hard to believe that the internet and mobile phones had not been invented back then.

"I well remember almost provoking a strike by daring to touch a galley of type in the composing room.

"But whatever happens the actual journalism – the buzz of getting big stories – will never change."

Mervyn recalls his own biggest stories as being the murder of a sub-postmaster by the notorious Black Panther, the 2006 fire started by a jealous husband in which a mum and her three daughters died and a randy vicar who got his organist pregnant.

There were also two separate murders in one year in which people were convicted without the body ever being found.

When Mervyn joined the Observer in 1979 it was independently owned by the Crossley family, selling in 1989 to the Rochdale Observer Group, now part of MEN Media.

He added: "I have had a tremendous career and I don't regret one minute of it.

"At one stage I did consider aiming for Fleet Street but the time and opportunity went by and there is something uniquely satisfying about editing a local weekly newspaper and feeling part of the community.

"I have worked with some very talented people, many of whom have gone on to greater things, and had some great fun along the way.

"In spite of all the current problems, I think there is still a future for local newspapers and I will remain an avid reader of the Observer. I am leaving with no regrets."

Mervyn now plans to take the summer off to spend more time with his family and baby grandchild but hopes to find another job to see him through to retirement age.

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