Steph Barnes

Steph Barnes
Full name: Stephanie Barnes (née Jones) Parents: f: Maurice Jones Married: Des Barnes (14th February 1990) Children: Heavily pregnant, October 1995 (f: Chris Fox)

Played by: Amelia Bullmore Appeared: 14 February 1990 - August 1991; May 1992; September - October 1995

Steph and Des moved into Nº6 on their wedding day, one of the houses built by Steph's father, Maurice Jones. Jones sold them the house at cost price.

Steph immediately made an impact on The Street by luring Kevin Webster upstairs - and shaving off his moustache. Steph was the first 'new woman' on The Street - brash, self-assured and full of confidence. Although she was married, she had no intention of loosing her identity and retained her job on the perfume counter at Kendals - err... sorry, a large Manchester department store.

However, Steph soon grew tired of Des - particularly when he bought a large boat, installed it in their back garden, and lavished more time and attention on it, rather than her.

Steph turned to architect Simon Beatty for comfort - she had met him at work - and they were even caught by Derek Wilton. But when Steph confessed to Des, on the maiden voyage of his boat, he reacted not by fighting for her love, but by setting fire to the boat. Steph left with Simon, but they didn't last long as Steph found him too posessive.

When Steph returned in May 1992, she found Des had already installed Raquel Wolstenhulme in Nº6, first as a lodger, but very quickly as lover. Raquel was uncerimoniously evicted to The Rovers Return, as Des thought he could patch up his marriage - but Steph had mearly broken up with Simon Beatty, and was looking for somewhere safe to stay until she found another man.

The next time we saw Steph was in September 1995 when Des took Tommy Duckworth to a burger bar (or was it a pizza restaurant ?) for a birthday treat, and a heavily-pregnant Steph was working behind the counter. She gave him her phone number, Des found that she was living in a terrible bedsit, and helped her find and move into one more suitable for a child, putting Maxine's nose out in the process. The last we saw of Steph was collecting her wages from her manager, and talking with the estranged father of her child, Chris Fox. She refused to go back to him, and asked Des if he would consider them getting back together, but he turned her down.