By James Garrett
The South-West England branch of the union hosted a party in Swindon in July to celebrate the award of NUJ life membership to two longstanding members. Barry Leighton and Paul Watson have between them clocked up 97 years’ union membership, 34 of them spent on The Evening Advertiser, or ‘Adver’.
Two dozen members from Wiltshire, Bristol and Somerset met at The King’s Arms in Old Town, around the corner from the newspaper’s former home, to congratulate and raise a glass to their colleagues, although Paul, who is currently unwell, was unable at the last minute to attend
A brazier in winter
Barry Leighton joined the Adver in 1976 after six years in London, where he joined the union. He vividly recalled Swindon’s part in the long national provincial newspaper strike of 1978/9.
“Between daily picketing duties – which saw members huddled around a brazier at the height of winter – my wife, Pauline, and I had to swallow our pride and make a dreaded visit to the building society manager.
“A rotund, uppity sort of fellow with an uncanny resemblance to Captain Mainwaring, he pompously lectured us on the evils of striking. We felt like a couple of schoolkids being sent to the head – and vowed to pay the society as soon as the strike ended. This turned out to be six weeks later.”
Barry, who was joined at the party by former Adver chapel fathers Paul Wilenius and Bob Naylor, remembered the strike as a time when a true camaraderie between colleagues emerged. Spirited picketing by members of the former Swindon branch to thwart newspaper delivery vans resulted in footage of their efforts appearing on ITV’s News At Ten.
Among those caught on camera was George Harris, a former Adver sub-editor. When he died in 2012, George left a legacy, the specific purpose of which was to finance a party for journalists in Swindon. SWE branch chair, Ray Tostevin, who presented Barry with his life membership certificate, asked colleagues to raise their glasses in George’s memory.
Tribute to Pauline Leighton
Barry worked on the paper until 1988, when he became Swindon reporter for the Western Daily Press. He worked from the basement of the home in Old Town, where he still lives. This didn’t deter members of the public from knocking on his front door periodically, to ask why their copy of the Adver hadn’t been delivered!
Barry paid tribute to his late wife, Pauline Leighton, who for many years was treasurer of the Swindon NUJ branch, and became the longest serving journalist on the Advertiser, with 43 years’ service to her retirement in December 2016.
“She would have loved to have been here tonight as she would have known and been friends – as well as colleagues – with almost every journalist in this room. Sadly, as most of you know, she died after a very hard battle with cancer ten months ago.”
Glory days for regional press
Paul Watson began as a junior reporter on the Surrey Mail in 1985. He joined the Adver in 1989, just after Barry left. He started as a general reporter then became education correspondent.
In 1997 Paul joined the subs’ bench, working in production until 2011, when he took voluntary redundancy after the Adver’s owner, Newsquest, moved production from Swindon to Oxford.
He crossed the county line to work as a sub-editor in Gloucestershire on two more former titans of the West Country regional press, the Gloucestershire Echo & Gloucester Citizen, as well as the weekly Stroud Life.
However, as newspaper circulations fell, their owner, Reach, turned the Echo & Citizen into weeklies and cut the number of sub-editors by two-thirds. Paul went freelance in 2018.
He said, “It has been an enjoyable career. The glory days for the regional press were probably the 1980s and 1990s, when newsrooms were fully-staffed and newspapers enjoyed huge circulations.”
Social support brings solidarity
Branch chair Ray Tostevin said, “Meeting together, sharing stories and supporting one another in convivial surroundings are as important activities as anything we do in a branch Zoom meeting, to build cohesiveness and solidarity.”
Since its formation in 2023 the SWE branch has held social events in Dorset, Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire, as well as Wiltshire. Colleagues with ideas about where the next one should take place – and what, if any, theme it might take – are encouraged to share them.
James Garrett
5 July, 2026