A former deputy editor at a weekly newspaper who has spent more than 35 years in the industry has retired.

Anthony Coppin, left, who is known as Tony, bid farewell to the Garstang Courier last week after 12 years there, initially as its deputy editor then as a senior reporter when he went part-time in 2009.

He started his career at the Blackpool Evening Gazette and Fleetwood Chronicle in the mid-1970s after graduating from the United Newspapers journalism college at Preston.

Tony then became the Gazette’s reporter for North Fylde and Wyre and later worked as senior sub-editor at the North West Evening Mail for four years before joining The Courier as its deputy editor, working alongside its then editor, Anne Rothwell.

He is a former chairman of the north west advisory committee of the National Council for the Training of Journalists and serves as an invigilator at the NCTJ’s examinations.

While at the Gazette, he won the Lancashire Young Journalist of the Year Award.

During his time at the Courier, Tony has covered all the big stories in the area including ongoing controversies such as the Canatxx-Halite proposals to store gas below the River Wyre.

Among his many exclusives was the abrupt quitting by the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society of its Myerscough site after falling out with its landlords, the Duchy of Lancaster.

Since going part-time, he has had more time to become in local organisations including Garstang Historical Society, of which he is vice-chairman, the Friends of Ribchester Roman Museum and Garstang Gardening Club, for which he has recently created a website.