🛥️ Meet Steve: The Lock Keeper Who Keeps Shepperton Afloat!

Gareth Davies: 00:00:47

Hello and welcome to the Sheppertonian, the podcast bringing you stories from Shepperton's people and places. Don't forget you can sign up for our weekly newsletter at thesheppertonian.uk the easiest way to keep up with local news and with each new episode.

on Lock. It was built back in: 1813

For more than 50 years, one man has lived and worked there. His name is Steve Newman. I began by asking Steve to describe what it feels like to stand here on a day like today.

Steve Newman: 00:01:30

I think I'm very lucky. I think I'm privileged to be here, to be honest.

Living in the lockhouse, getting up in the morning, getting dressed, and I come out on a day like today. Blue sky. And sometimes I have to pinch myself, especially this time of the year. I think the. The colours and the shade.

There's something about September which is. I love it. I love September. It. Things start to quieten down on the river.

We have had quite a busy year this year with boats, but September, it just seems the kids are back at school. It just seems to quieten down a little bit. It's a bit like the season's changing, really, you know, So I just find it's beautiful. I love it.

I love looking out across down to D'Oyly Carte Island. That way we get the most fantastic sunsets. Being that Shepperton is the most southerly point on the River Thames, we get the best sunsets ever.

Gareth Davies: 00:02:31

Steve didn't set out to be a lock keeper. His first job was in printing, and a chance conversation set him on a new course.

Steve Newman: 00:02:39

I left school, 15, went straight to work.

I was a printer for two or three years, and I decided that I needed a change from this particular printer who was in Surbiton, and I went to another printer's in Surbiton, and it was there that I met this person who.

He was a printer, but he used to do the letter pressing, so he would make up little tiny pieces of lead with a letter on it and it would literally all go in place and then it would be onto a printing machine and it would be read by somebody. Anyway, I was fascinated by the way that he was so quick.

He had a big box with all these letters in and numbers, and he knew exactly how many to take out and he was putting it all together. But one day his son came in to have a cup of tea. Really with him.

And I was there and I said to Huey, his name was, I said, what does your son do for a living, Huey? And he said, oh, he works for the Thames Conservancy. I said, who are they?

And he said, well, he drives a patrol boat and there's an inspector that goes up and down the river making sure that they've got a license on their boat and, and just making sure that everybody behaves themselves.

I thought, what a wonderful job, because as a kid I lived in Kingston, fairly close to Teddington Lock, and I used to cycle down to Teddington and I used to watch the boats going through the lock and I thought, oh, wouldn't it be lovely to have a job like this on the river? So when I mentioned this to Huey at the print shop, he said, well, why don't I ask my son if. If they need any help on the weekends?

Because they do employ weekend assistance. Which meant I could still do the five days a week at the printing, but then Saturdays and Sundays I could work on the lock.

Anyway, he put my name forward and I got a phone call, could I turn up at Sunbury Lock, which I did. And, yeah, it was six pound a day, twopence a mile for mileage. And it was then that I thought, do you know what, I think I could get used to this.

And I got really friendly with the. With the lock keeper there at Sunbury, Eric. Eric Eade.

So anyway, one of the inspectors came along one day and said, Steve, there's a job come up, but it's possibly not what you want. And I said, well, what's that? So they said, well, it's mainly lock keeping, but the potential for the occasional trip on a patrol boat.

And I thought, no, I don't want that. I'd rather just be a boatman driving the patrol boat anyway. He said, well, look, go home, talk to your mum and dad and see what they say.

So anyway, how old was I? 18, 19 at the time. I went home and I said to my dad, dad, they've offered me a job. I don't really want to do it, I want to be a boatman.

So he said, do you get a pension? So I said, yeah, I think so. Could you get a house? So I said, yeah, I suppose eventually, you know, I could become a resident lock keeper.

He said, do you get holiday pay? Do you get sick pay? I said, well, I. Yeah, I suppose so. He said, well you go back tomorrow and you tell that inspector that you want that job!

So I thought, oh, all right then. And I did my first day. I was put with Eric at Sunbury just to start learning it. And it was a beautiful summer's morning.

I remember turning up at 9 o' clock with him and his wife brought out a cup of tea for us both and we sat and drank that. And then he said, oh, he said, I think we'll clean the steps today, Steve. He said, you can help me.

So he said, I want you to throw that bucket in, don't let go of the line and pull the water out. He said, and when I scrub him, he said, you throw the water over it. And I can remember doing that. And I'm thinking, I'm getting paid to do this.

I am getting paid to do this.

I couldn't believe it from working in a factory, working in an office with other machines going all the time, and then suddenly I'm out like this and I'm thinking, oh, God, I had to pinch myself.

Gareth Davies: 00:07:08

That was July: 1975

Steve Newman: 00:07:18

When I first started, there were hire fleets everywhere. Between this reach and Teddington there was probably a dozen hire fleets and we were busy.

I mean, I can remember when I was a relief, having to come here to help the lock keeper here at the time. And at 9 o' clock in the morning on a Sunday, there would be enough boats waiting to get through this lock, waiting down there on the lay by.

You could put them side by side and you can walk from Shepperton to Weybridge on them. And that was at 9 o' clock in the morning.

Now, bearing in mind the hire boats were quite big boats then, because there might be six, seven people on board, so sleeping on them. So they were quite. They had three bedrooms, probably, so they were quite big boats with this lock being one of the smallest.

And this is really classed as a bottleneck, really, because this is smaller than Sunbury Lock, Teddington Lock, Chertsey Lock, Penton Hook Lock, people got snagged here.

And, yeah, these boats that were waiting at 9 o' clock in the morning may not have even got through this lock on that Sunday till midday, it was that busy. And because Sunbury Lock had two locks.

So if he was working two locks, not only was I getting those boats from the lock I was getting from Shepperton Marina, I was getting them from Walton Marina. So you can imagine. Yeah, you can imagine.

Gareth Davies: 00:08:43

The job wasn't just about traffic on the river, though. There was also discipline and hierarchy back then.

Steve Newman: 00:08:49

In: 1975

It was the sort of boat which the Queen would go on if ever she came to the River Thames, which she did, she would be on the Windrush.

So every weekend, or nearly every weekend, the Chief Inspector would come down from his office was at Reading by Caversham Lock, and they would come down on the Windrush. And that was a sort of inspection, really, to make sure that you're doing your job properly, you know.

And it was a flying visit, but it was enough to make sure that the toilets were clean and the paths were swept and the grass was cut.

Gareth Davies: 00:09:50

And Steve has always looked after the lock as much as the river.

Steve Newman: 00:09:54

There's an awful lot of grass to cut, or there's hedges to cut, or there's sweeping up to do. So I've got volunteers that help me. Without them, I couldn't do what I do.

So I'm really fortunate in as much that I've got volunteer for every day of the week and they come in about, I don't know, half past nine, something like that, we have a cup of tea, we have a little chat and I say, right, you happy running the lock? And they say, yep. And I say, well, I'm going to get the lawnmower out and that's it, I'm off.

And that will take me till lunchtime and then I will be doing that every day of the week, apart from a weekend when I've got my best bib and tucker on. But during the week, Monday to Friday, I will be doing something.

If it's strimming, hedge cutting, cutting grass, cleaning the steps, there is something for me to do every day.

I want to see it looking nice and I want the public to see it looking nice when they come here, because it would be very easy for me to say, I don't feel like cutting that today, or I think I'll let it go wild, or I like to see it cut nice and where other people can come and enjoy it.

Gareth Davies: 00:12:22

and his wife started back in: 1989

Steve Newman: 00:12:30

Has brought an awful lot of people to this river. But having said that, Gareth, I can tell you now, there are people that live in Shepperton, that don't even know that Shepperton Lock exists.

They'd never been here before. And I've, you know. Oh, they. They come to the tea shop. Oh, they say, oh, this is lovely. Oh, we can have a cup of tea.

I say, oh, where do you live, then? Oh, we live in Shepperton. You've never been? No. I didn't know this was here.

So, you know, hopefully having the tea shop, it certainly has brought an awful lot of people down to the river.

Gareth Davies: 00:13:05

Of course, 50 years at Shepperton Lock means Steve has seen his fair share of characters.

Steve Newman: 00:13:10

I looked downstream and I could see that this hire boat was coming towards the lock, but he was going in a sort of a zigzag motion because a lot of people overcorrect when they're driving. Anyway, I managed to. By the time he got here, I managed to get the gates. The lock. Gates open, so he was able to come straight in.

But when he did come in, he bounced it off the one side of the lock and then he bounced it onto the other side of the lock and then he bounced it onto the other. And then I thought, oh, I better go down and give this one a hand. So I went down and I took their ropes from them and this guy got out with a.

With a baseball cap on and I said, oh, so we call that in off the cushion. And it was Jimmy White. So how did I feel? Well, I went, oh, my. Oh, I'm sorry. So that was probably one of the funniest things. And there still are.

Timothy Spall comes through quite a lot on his barge. He. He made a documentary about traveling all of European waterways. Paul McCartney with Linda when she was alive, he came through.

When he was playing with Wings, there was a guitarist who used to play, I think he was in the Small Faces called Denny Lane, and he was in wings. When Paul McCartney first formed wings, and Denny Lane used to live at Laleham, actually, and he had. He had a boat.

I've seen Pete Townsend, he used to have a lovely boat. And he. When he lived down at Twickenham or Chiswick, I'm not sure, but he used to come through quite a lot. Yeah. So.

Oh, I can remember the lock had broken down. It was in the middle of summer, the gates were shut and hire boat. I could see a hire boat had just moored up, obviously wanted to come through.

And I was standing where we're standing now and this figure started to walk towards me and I thought, that is. That's Bobby Moore.

Gareth Davies: 00:15:14

nd national team that won the: 1966

Steve Newman: 00:15:23

And I'm not kidding you, he had. He had a pair of shorts on and he had the biggest pair of legs I have ever seen in my life. And he said, lock keeper, can we come through this lock?

I said, I'm awfully sorry, Bobby, I said, but the lock's just broken down. Oh, dear. He said, what can I do now? I said, well, it's going to be a couple of hours before you can get through here anyway.

He got back on his boat and off he went. He went downstream.

Gareth Davies: 00:15:49

But beyond the famous name, Steve has kept thousands of ordinary boaters safe. And ropes, he says, are the biggest danger.

Steve Newman: 00:15:57

The most dangerous thing on your boat is your rope. They look at me as if I'm talking bananas.

But every accident we have on the lock side, and we do have a few accidents, someone is holding a rope in their hand. It's not easy, especially when you've got a deep lock like this, which is nearly 7 foot, and you're standing down on a little boat and you're trying.

You see that bollard above your head and you're trying to get to it. It's difficult.

I can't watch everybody and I can't help everybody, but I'm really hot on, you know, don't jump off, I'll help you, you know, and if I can, not just me, everybody will, all the lock staff will. They're not going to watch as somebody tries to fall in.

They're going to try and help them, you know, but most people, it will always be holding a rope in their hand and they're trying to get that rope onto that bollard.

Gareth Davies: 00:16:53

The lock is also part of Shepperton's community.

Steve Newman: 00:16:56

When I'm day off and I walk into the village, people are saying hello to me. And I don't know who they are, but that's because they've seen me on the lock.

I mean, certainly having these school kids today, I've had Cleeve School come and they came yesterday. There were 60 children, they've come today, there were 60 children and I've got another 60 tomorrow. I mean, I could bore them with figures.

But, you know the sort of things they ask me, does anybody fall in, does anybody get hurt, what things have happened, or have you found any treasure in the river? And all this sort of thing? And I can tell them a few stories.

Gareth Davies: 00:17:33

After five decades. I wanted to know from Steve, what's kept him going?

Steve Newman: 00:17:38

Well, I'm one of those that believe that your whole life is laid out in front of you. When I was at junior school, the school used to put on a school play every year.

And this particular teacher, he wanted students, or we were only 11, 10 or 11. He was going to perform the Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan. And we all had to go.

Well, not all of us, but the ones that wanted to do it had to go for an audition, singing audition. And I went for this singing audition and they, for whatever reason, they liked what I sang. And I got the part of the Mikado.

Now, how ironic is this, Gareth?

I am now looking over at D'Oyly Carte island, where Gilbert and Sullivan used to go and where the song tit willow, tit willow, tit willow was, was written for the Mikado in the Mikado play. And here I am, overlooking that. I just think I've been really privileged to be able to live in this lockhouse and come to work at a really.

,: 1975

I've won the lottery having this job.

Gareth Davies: 00:19:09

And before we wrapped up, I asked Steve what his favorite sound is from the lock.

Steve Newman: 00:19:14

Well, I've got two things, really.

You might find this a bit weird, but certainly in the stillness of night, when I hear a slight leakage from the lock gates of this water just dropping into the river and just making that noise, I can also tell if it's quite a lot of water coming through that is telling me that the river levels are going up quite quickly. And the reverse also, when there's not a lot of water coming through, that the river levels are dropping quite quickly.

It's a nicer sound, believe it or not. I love the sound of seagulls by the water. I just think I'm on holiday somewhere. I'm down on the coast, I can hear. I can.

These seagulls are quirking away and I just think, yeah, that's great. Love it. So it might seem strange, but, I mean, it's nicer than the duck quacking, isn't it?

Gareth Davies: 00:20:12

It was so nice sitting outside at the lock with a cup of tea, chatting to Steve. Now, what's going on in and around Shepperton?

What's going on in Shepperton? Sponsored by Shepperton matters. So let's see.

On Friday 24th October, from 8pm until 10pm, Walton Folk presents Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage at the Riverhouse Barn, Walton on Thames.

You can find tickets at riverhousebarn.co.uk Then on Friday 31st October, from 7.30pm until 9.45pm, it's the Southern Revival New Orleans Jazz Band at Runnymede Jazz Club. That sounds fun. The Addleston Centre, Garfield Road, Addleston, Surrey.

Doors open at 6:45pm with a raffle in the interval and a license bar for members. It's £12 and non members £14, which you can pay at the door with cash or card.

-: 1694

Don't forget that you can see the full list of what's on in and around Shepperton by subscribing to the Sheppertonian newsletter at thesheppertonian.uk. It's free and it's weekly and absolutely the best way to find out what's happening.

My thanks to lock keeper Steve Newman for sharing his stories of Shepperton Lock. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed at thesheppertonian.uk.

That's where you'll find our weekly newsletter, the podcast archive and more about how you can advertise your local business with the Sheppertonian. I'm Gareth, thanks for listening and I'll see you around.