Steph Barnes
Full name: Stephanie Barnes (née
Jones)
Parents: f: Maurice Jones
Married: Des Barnes (14 February
1990)
Children: Heavily pregnant, October 1995 (f: Chris
Fox)
Played by: Amelia
Bullmore
Appeared: 14 February 1990 - August1991; 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.
