Former Keighley News journalist Barry Ayrton died suddenly this week. He was 51 years of age.

Barry was news editor of the Keighley News for 15 years and wrote the popular View from Sunnybank column which reflected his unique view on life.

He was brought up in Skipton, where he attended Ermysted's Grammar School, leaving to join the Craven Herald, where his father was a printer, as a junior reporter. After qualifying as a journalist he joined the former Burnley Evening Star, based at its office in Nelson.

He helped form the Craven News newspaper in Skipton during the 1980s, and joined the Keighley News in 1982, becoming well known throughout the district. After moving to the Burnley Express in June 1995, he was soon promoted to deputy news editor of the bi-weekly newspaper and continued to express his forthright views in a "Straighttalking" column.

Barry was proud of the fact that he had never missed a day's work through illness throughout his working life and had been to work as normal on Monday, but began to feel ill as he drove home. Later in the evening he was admitted to Airedale Hospital but suffered a severe heart attack in the early hours of Tuesday and died.

Burnley Express editor, Chris Daggett said: "Barry was a professional through and through. He was a journalist of the old school, a reporter who once he got his teeth into a story wouldn't let go. His Straighttalking column made him a real personality in the area and his face was probably the best recognised in the newsroom.

"He called a spade a spade and in many ways was an archetypal Yorkshireman -- blunt and straight to the point. There were no airs and graces about Barry, he said what he thought and wrote what he said. Journalism has lost a great character and a true gentleman."

He lived in Sunnybank Terrace, Glusburn, with his wife Karen. They had a daughter Heather and son Andrew. He was a keen gardener, spending hours on an allotment near his home, and also played dominoes in the Skipton & District League for many years.

A green funeral is to be held at the Tarn Moor Memorial Woodland, off Grassington Road, Skipton, on Tuesday at 2pm.