A VETERAN South Tyne clergyman insisted he had no plans to retire after clocking up 60 years in the priesthood.

Father Leo Pyle (84) has preached at St John of Beverley Roman Catholic Church in Haydon Bridge and St Wilfrid’s in Haltwhistle for 20 years.

Speaking before he led a special mass at the Haydon Bridge church last Saturday, the octogenarian said he would continue to drive a car and go for walks around the village.

Asked if he had considered retirement, Father Pyle said: “Absolutely not. I love my job and I don’t know what I would do without it.

“I still drive a car. It’s only within the last six months that members of the congregation have given me a lift to Haltwhistle because they feel I should preserve my energy for leading the service.”

Saturday’s service was followed by a special lunch in a marquee in the church grounds where Father Pyle was joined by parishioners to celebrate his diamond jubilee.

The veteran priest was born into a Catholic practising family in the west end of Newcastle, but his links with the St John of Beverley church date back to his childhood.

Sent to Allendale as an evacuee during the Second World War, he would walk to Haydon Bridge every Sunday to attend services at St John’s.

He went on to attend a Catholic school in Newcastle and was enrolled at Ushaw College in Durham, where he trained as a priest.

Following his ordination in 1957, he stayed on as a member of staff at the Durham establishment.

Father Pyle, who also studied at Corpus Christi College in London, was appointed the first director of the Diocesan Religious Education Centre in 1967, a role he combined with the chaplaincy of St Mary’s Teacher Training College in Fenham.

In 1978, he became parish priest at St Cuthbert’s in North Shields, before moving to St Mary’s in Sunderland in 1986 and finally to Haydon Bridge and Haltwhistle in 1997.