PASSIONATE supporter of the arts and the artistic, Peter Lewis was yet the scourge of the trite and the mediocre.

The Hexham Courant’s theatre critic, who died at home during the night of January 25 at the age of 78, was renowned for speaking his mind.

His searing honesty cut the most complacent figure down to size.

Two or three years back, a female representative of one local theatre company rang to tell him: “You should be tarred and feathered in Hexham Market Place!”

When Peter recalled the incident he added ‘there’s a lot of people feel like that’.

But readers relished his writing and publishers appreciated the value of having a genuine reviewer, courageous in the face of local politics, on board.

His fierce intelligence – as a young man, he turned down a Cambridge University scholarship in favour of doing his National Service – combined with his tremendous knowledge of the theatre proved a formidable combination. His reviews informed, educated and entertained by turn.

Even to those who were bruised by their encounter with him, he was, indeed, a critical friend.

The more fledgling the enterprise, too, the more he pulled out the stops to support it.

It’s a devilish field to get started in, he would say.

The role of theatre critic was his hobby in retirement, though, a mere denouement to the job that really made his name in the North-East.

In 1989, he took over as director of Beamish Museum from its founder, Frank Atkinson. The pair had a famously tempestuous relationship.

But Richard Evans, the current director of Beamish, said: “We were all very sorry to hear the sad news that Peter Lewis had passed away.

“Working with his senior curators, John Gall and Rosy Allan, he oversaw many important additions to the museum, including the development of the area set in 1825, with Pockerley Old Hall and the working early railway.

“He is remembered fondly by many staff and volunteers, as well as colleagues in the wider open air museum community – he was well known across Europe and often spoke at international conferences,” Mr Evans added.

After his retirement in 2000, Peter began travelling the country to inspect and review other people’s museums, mostly for The Museums Journal. True to form, he took no prisoners.

While he was enlightened by the refreshed Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, he felt the York Castle Museum should have hung its head in shame.

The changes made to its Kirkgate replica Victorian street, he wrote in 2006, were nothing short of shallow and vulgar.

However, he actually began his working life as a management trainee, with the Littlewoods chain of high street stores.

By then Peter, the product of a working class household in Chingford, south-east London, was married to his high school sweetheart, Jenny (they first met while performing together in the school’s production of The Admirable Crichton).

The job with Littlewoods led to a nomadic existence as their growing family – eldest son Tim was joined, in time, by daughter Sarah and youngest son Jamie – followed the work.

They moved 11 times in 12 years as Peter was promoted to manage bigger and bigger stores.

They had their first taste of the North-East when he was appointed to run the company’s flagship store on Northumberland Street in Newcastle.

They later moved again, though, when he was promoted to the post of company buyer, based at the head office in Liverpool.

He enjoyed the new role and the travel it required round Europe and to the Far East.

He also found the time to enrol with the Open University and over the course of a decade, gained a BA and a Masters in literature.

He combined these scholarly pursuits with writing, directing and acting in the village pantomimes on the Wirral, where the family was then living, before his career path reached its natural conclusion – he turned his passion into his profession.

He left Littlewoods to become the commercial and marketing director of The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, which played host to many a great actor in its day.

He moved on after a couple of years to become director, or ‘pier master’ as he always called himself, of the Wigan Pier museum and retail complex, a job that proved to be the stepping stone to the post at Beamish.

During the 26 years Peter (and Jenny) lived in Hexham, he played an active part in local life.

He was a guide at Hexham Abbey and a significant contributor to the Tynedale branch of the University of the Third Age.

In particular, he is remembered for the museum and theatre trips he organised, promoting the reading of Shakespeare and recommending obscure titles to his book group.

Most Saturdays, he and Jenny were to be found among the home faithful at Tynedale Rugby Club, too.

Peter’s funeral took place at Hexham Abbey last Thursday.