A man who helped hundreds of Huddersfield people with their musical careers has died.

Former music shop expert and music tutor Barry Fearnley was taken ill on holiday in Spain with lung problems and admitted to hospital.

He was transferred back to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but has died at the age of 75.

Mr Fearnley, of Golcar, was perhaps best known for his 30 years at the former Woods music shop in Market Street.

But his musical roots stretched back to his schooldays when he learned to play the piano accordion. He went on to teach the instrument to many young players and also taught the organ.

He and his wife Margaret were also key figures behind the success of the Haydn Wood Music Festival, which attracted many thousands of young musicians from the Colne Valley over the years.

Mrs Fearnley said: “Barry was very much in his element at the festival, being very supportive of all the young people”.

In the past 10 years he enjoyed being a member of Colne Valley Male Voice Choir.

Mr Fearnley was brought up in Lockwood but a childhood accident saw him spend three years in hospital. He suffered a fractured leg and compounded the injury by drinking untreated milk at a farm, which caused a serious infection. For much oft he time, he was in a plaster cast.

He later moved to Dalton and attended Rawthorpe Secondary Modern School and later Huddersfield Technical College, where he studied TV engineering.

He worked for Wigfalls, at the Schofields department store in Leeds and at Whitfields in Huddersfield before being approached to work at Woods.

Mr Fearnley was a councillor with the former Colne Valley Urban District Council and Kirklees Council between 1966 and 1990, serving as a Liberal. He served as chairman of the Colne Valley Council in 1972.

He was also heavily involved with Colne Valley’s twinning agreement with Overath and was a long-serving president of Golcar Liberal Club.

The couple met while students at the former Studio 58 coffee bar in Huddersfield and were married for 51 years. They had three children Deborah, Richard and David, and four grandchildren - David, Thomas, Sarah and Enzo.

A funeral service was held last week.