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A BUSY Southampton road is to be closed for six weeks to allow work to paint a bridge. Thomas Lewis Way is to be closed from 8pm to 5am from May 4 for up to six weeks. The road will be closed between its junctions with Dukes Road and St Denys Road, A3035. The closure is to allow work to paint the overhead footbridge, which means the footbridge will also be fully closed to the public. The bridge will be closed for a further two weeks so that the ramps can be painted, but Thomas Lewis Way will fully reopen. A diversion route will be in place for motorists wishing to use the road between 8pm and 5am.
THOMAS Lewis was born in St Mary’s in 1873, the son of John Lewis a dock worker from Jersey and the family lived in a shared house at 24 Melbourne Street when he was a boy. The house was shared with the family of William Lewis who was a clockmaker. It was no surprise therefore that at the age of eleven Tommy became an apprentice watchmaker. From an early age Tommy was involved in the emergent local and national Labour movement. In 1901 he became Southampton’s first Labour Party councillor, representing St Mary’s Ward. He helped form local branches of the Dockers’ Union, the Ship Stewards’ Union and the National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union.