Trevor Hayes has returned to the Guild after an absence of several years.
Married to Anne, a former newspaper photographer turned school worker, they have three grown-up children – a son and two daughters – the girls’ partners are also in journalism.
He has been involved with journalism and press and public relations since 1965 when he started on the Woking Herald in Surrey.
After a spell in Bradford he joined the Press Association as a general news reporter where he also deputised for the agriculture correspondent.
In 1978 he joined Farmers Weekly as chief reporter before becoming European Correspondent and then freelanced in Brussels for a variety of newspapers (incl the Daily Mail) and farming magazines as well as TV and radio.
In the 1990s he headed up the press and public relations department at the NFU in London and then at the MLC before Unigate asked him to become Press and PR Manager of its meat division based at Malton in North Yorkshire where he and his wife still live.
When the division was taken over by Grampian Foods he was made redundant and went to the Scarborough Evening News which he left in 2008 as deputy news editor, supposedly to enjoy his retirement.
Since then, though, he has freelanced from time to time for regional and local papers on food and farming issues as well as crime and courts.
He said: “Living in rural Ryedale in North Yorkshire and just a few minutes walk away from one of the biggest livestock markets in the country you encounter some aspect of farming just about every day. Malton also likes to style itself as fast becoming the foodie capital of Yorkshire so there is plenty to write about and observe.”
Ben Briggs
