Steve Gray is a man on a mission. He has been the operations manager at Shepperton Marina in Felix Lane, Shepperton for the past seven years and much of his time has been devoted to the project of expanding the marina by adding new mooring pontoons on two of the currently unused lakes on the site.

I recently revealed that the River Thames had won a prestigious international conservation award – the Thiess prize – as the world’s best cared-for river because of the way the quality of the water has been improved over the past fifty years or so.

I just love statistics and facts. I’m afraid I’m one of those real nerds who enjoys sitting down with an encyclopedia or a reference book and just soaking up interesting information about – well – virtually anything at all really.

It never ceases to amaze me what you good people can dig up when it comes to the history of the Thames in Surrey and Middlesex.