A DISTINGUISHED former editor of The Northern Echo returned to his old stomping ground yesterday.

Harold Evans visited the Darlington headquarters of the North-East Newspaper of the Year. It followed a visit earlier in the day to the University of Teesside, in Middlesbrough, where he collected an honorary degree.

Mr Evans said he was delighted to be back at The Northern Echo and was particularly impressed that the newspaper is carrying on its campaigning traditions.

"I have wonderful memories of my time here, and being at The Northern Echo is something I will never forget," he said.

Mr Evans carried on The Northern Echo's campaigning tradition in the 1960s, winning a posthumous pardon for Timothy Evans, hanged in 1950 after wrongly being convicted of strangling his baby daughter.

There were also campaigns against inflammable nightwear, following accidents in which women were burned, a campaign for better roads, and campaigns against industrial pollution on Teesside.

It was not long before Mr Evans's skills as an editor came to the attention of the national newspapers and the lure of Fleet Street finally proved too tempting.

He went on to edit The Sunday Times and The Times before moving to America with his wife, Tina Brown, who edits Talk Magazine.

He is now editorial director and vice-chairman of the New York Daily News, as well as being a book writer and sought-after speaker.

Awarded a gold medal from the Institute of Journalists in 1979, he won the title of Editor of the Year in 1975 and 1982.

Others to be honoured by the university were Deborah Dyer, better known as Skin, lead singer of rock band Skunk Anansie, actress Elizabeth Carling, local businessman Alistair Arkley, international exhibiting artist Mackenzie Thorpe, and South Carolina Emeritus Professor John Gardner, instrumental in forging a Trans-Atlantic partnership with the University of Teesside