HEXHAM man has been presented with a long-service award to mark a career spanning 40 years with Northumbrian Water.

Donald Campbell, of Peth Head, retired from the business on August 31 – exactly four decades on from the day his career began.

It was an approach from a neighbour, who was an existing Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company employee, which helped Donald get a foot in the door back in 1976.

“I was working as a labourer up at Kielder Dam at the time, building houses for the workers,” explained the 60-year-old.

“They were long 12-hour shifts and I remember saying at the time that I wished I worked for the water board.”

A senior manager paid him a visit at his family home in Hexham when news of his interest was passed on and, within two weeks, a 20-year-old Donald took up his post as a trenchman.

“I was over the moon because jobs like that were like gold dust at the time,” he explained.

“I spent my days laying the pipes for a lot of the water mains and after nine or 10 years I was promoted.”

Working as part of a two-man gang, Donald took the lead in his new role as a pipe fitter. And just five years later, his extensive knowledge and experience of Tynedale’s water network became invaluable when he climbed the ladder again to become a water inspector.

“These days the role is known as a distribution technician and it involves attending customer calls, leakage detection work and checking reservoirs,” said Donald.

The Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company expanded to take in Sunderland and South Shields in the 1990s and later became part of Northumbrian Water, providing mains water and sewerage services across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and parts of North Yorkshire.

Colleagues past and present gathered at the company’s depot in Hexham to mark his retirement and long service.

Richard Irving, customer field services area manager, who presented the long service award, said: “Donald has been a well-known and valued employee in the Tynedale area and has had a lot of interaction with customers from the outskirts of Newcastle to the North Tyne and Cumbrian border.”