Fixing leaks to growing leeks

31/12/2004

A water worker has hung up his work boots, after more than four decades, to tend to a different type of leak.

Blaydon-born, Davy Lee, began is working life in May 1962 at the age of 15, working for Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company.

Cycling to work in the summer and getting the bus in the winter became a way of life for Davy who was hugely impressed by the knowledge of the “old fellas” he worked with who knew the water network like the back of their hands. 

During the Second World War many of the water records were lost – water workers stored what they knew in their heads or hidden in their peaked caps!  They taught Davy a lot of what he knows today.

He was not so impressed, however, with his first depot – premises at Carliol Square, Newcastle – which had previously been the city’s jail where villains paid for their crime in the gallows.

During his forty-two years at the water company, now Northumbrian Water which operates from Berwick down to North Yorkshire and across to the Pennines, Davy has worked as a community representative – a varied job which involves visiting customers and ensuring that when the tap is turned customers receive one of life’s vital ingredients.

Looking to the future, Davy who now lives in Leamington, Newcastle, will be dealing with a different type of leak!  He is a keen gardner and will enjoy spending more time growing his prize leeks and flowers: 

“I will miss the people I have worked with – they are like an extended family.  One thing my wife, Julie, won’t miss is me being on stand-by – she feels like she has also been on stand-by all our married life – just waiting for the phone to ring!

“After spending my working life travelling around Tyneside, I am looking forward to travelling around America – we are taking Route 66 in the Summer before spending some time with friends in Detroit”.

Davy will be missed – his colleagues say he is one true gentleman.
 
For further information please contact Cara Hall, Communications Team Leader, on 0191 301 6720.