A photographer from Bath is preparing to leave journalism after 50 years in the business.

Brian Stevens, who works for the Bath Chronicle, is planning to retire in September.

He was with the Wiltshire Gazette at Devizes and the Swindon Evening Advertiser before joining the Chronicle in 1961.

One of his most memorable assignments was the Aberfan disaster in 1966 when 144 children and teachers were killed.

He explained: “It was like a black porridge had come down the side of the mountain.

“There this thick black mass on what remained of the school.

“Every once in a while a whistle blew and everything went deathly silent. That meant another body had been found.”

One of his biggest achievements was winning the Ilford Monthly Press award in 1992 for his pricture of a bloodied man being led away police in riot gear after a siege.

Brian, who lives in Whitchurch, says his craft has changed a great deal in the last five decades.

He said: “It has all become electronic and you no longer have so much control over your work.”

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