Son's tribute to retired Derbyshire Times journalist Glyn Williams who has died at age of 89

Glyn Williams, who lived at Hill Top Dronfield, wrote the popular Walk With Williams column, a farming and countryside page and covered court during his 16-year career with the newspaper. Prior to joining the Derbyshire Times, he worked at The Star office in Chesterfield where he transferred after working at the paper’s headquarters in Sheffield.

His youngest son, Matthew, 53, of Paddock Way, Dronfield said that one of his dad’s passions was walking. “In 1984 the Derbyshire Times produced a small book of walks under the Walk With Williams name and decided to have a walk where readers came along to walk with Glyn. Nobody was sure if many would come. So, colleagues, friends and family came along in support. But over 200 people turned up on the day.”

Matthew is considering following in his dad’s footsteps by taking his family on a memorial walk along the eight-mile circular route from Bakewell that Glyn took. He said: “Anyone could join us, although a lot of people who were on the walk with my dad would now be infirm or have passed on. You might get sons and daughters coming along in memory of their parents.”

Glyn’s love of walking led to him joining the Chesterfield and NE Derbyshire group of the Ramblers Association. His wife Sandra and he took part in a group project leading blind and partially sighted on a monthly walk. Glyn also had enjoyable times with the Dronfield Footpath and Bridleway Society. Matthew said: “He would carry a pair of secateurs to cut back the bushes on his walks.”

The Dronfield U3A provided Glyn with the chance to continue country walking until his late 80s, and helped him cope with the loss of Sandra, who he had been married to for 56 years and who died in 2019. Glyn had to stop country walking due to poor eyesight. But he still walked around Dronfield daily clocking up four or five miles, going for an all-day breakfast or a pasty at a cafe until late 2022 when poor health started to keep him at home.

Glyn’s family consists of sons Nigel and Matthew, daughters-in-law Amy and Nicola and grandchildren Ryan, Sean, Riley and Jasmine.

Matthew described his dad as “very quiet, very tolerant and never a person who would shout. He could be very funny but was also a bit of a pessimist. I remember going on day trips as a kid when we’d go to Kedleston Hall, Clumber Park or Padley Gorge and my mum would pack a picnic. My dad called them Misery Tours, expecting that something would go wrong, that we’d argue, we’d get lost or it would be raining. Most times, it would be a good day out! If you ever said to my dad we were going somewhere in the UK on holiday he would say ‘oh I went there with your mum’, then go and get the guide book which would be from about 30 years previous, and not much use. He had a huge supply of guide books to seaside towns, castles and stately homes etc.”

Arriving into the world on November 8, 1933, Glyn was the only child of David and Silvia. Glyn was just seven years old when his home at Granville Road, Sheffield was damaged by a bomb in the night-time blitz of December 12 to 13 and his family had to live with friends for three months.

After being hospitalised with a serious eye infection, Glyn was bought a bicycle by his parents and he later joined the Sheffield Atlas cycling club.

Glyn entered the newspaper business after he hads finished doing his National Service in Devizes, Wiltshire. His father, a sports journalist, had spotted an opportunity for Glyn to work as a junior reporter on The Star in Sheffield.

A love of words wasn’t restricted to Glyn’s working life. Matthew said: “He used to write daft rhyming poems for friends’ 25th, 40th and 60th anniversaries. He wrote rhymes about meeting my mum and what they did together.”

Glyn and Sandra met in the early Sixities and used to frequent a jazz club at the Albert in Sheffield. They travelled on a motor scooter, getting as far as North Wales and bought their first car, a 1958 Ford Prefect, shortly before getting married in 1963.

In their younger years Glyn and Sandra played badminton at many venues including Dronfield Leisure Centre and Middlecroft at Staveley.

Matthew said: “When my mum died he was devastated and never the same after.”

Pipe-smoking remained one of the pleasures that Glyn in later life. Matthew said: “He had barely got the energy to get out of bed but the one thing he would instruct me to do would be to go and get him some matches or some more tobacco. You can't buy pipe tobacco so I had to buy him rolling tobacco. He still made as much puther as ever."

For the past year Glyn had been suffering from failing kidneys that necessitated a five-week stay in hospital. He died on August 16 in the house that Sandra and he bought half a century ago.

The funeral service will take place at Chesterfield Crematorium on Friday, September 8, at 12.50pm. It will be followed by a wake at the Hyde Park Inn in Dronfield.