A Weymouth-born man will be included in the 2027 Guinness Book of World Records – after spending the last 35 years searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

Steve Feltham was 28 years old when he jacked in his job, bought a converted Dorset County Council mobile library from a bloke in Puddletown and set off for Scotland.

And he’s still there aged 63, parked up next to the loch in the very same, 56-year-old van.

The seeds of his dream were sown years earlier on a trip to the loch with his parents when he was seven. But while his mission has taken far longer than anyone might have expected, his youthful enthusiasm remains.

He said: “It was 1970 and my parents took me and my brother on a touring holiday in Scotland. We went alongside Loch Ness and there was five big, old, static caravans in a rectangle on a hilltop – it was the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau, who for ten years launched investigations into the monster.

“The hillside dropped away from the vans towards the loch, where they built a platform with an artillery tripod and a metre-long camera lens.

“I was a seven-year-old boy – blimmin’ ’eck, that’s a very formative age – things do stick with you for life.

“What clinched it on that day was that their Nessie hunting expedition got a sponsorship from Wiggins Teape (a historic British paper manufacturer and wholesale stationer).

“They made folders with sleeves for all this A4 printed material – there was a map in there, a few sighting reports, a sonar chart… They had a pallet in the middle with these binders for sale and dad thought, ‘That will keep him quiet for a few hours’. That binder became my bible.

“This folder was a ready-made lecture that led to lots of schoolroom debates – is there a monster, is there not a monster? I’d go off to the library and if there was a book there on the Loch Ness Monster I would have it checked out for the next 10 years.

“My parents were very much into campervans and caravanettes and we’d come back up here and I would insist we stay a night or two at Loch Ness. It just grew and grew.”

Steve grew up and got a job as an alarm installer. But his dream of finding Nessie never abated.

He said: “I started working for a company with a compulsory two-week holiday each year and I thought I’d take a tent and go back and sit there with my little chair and my transistor radio. I mean, blimey – two weeks is enough to solve this mystery, isn’t it?”

Steve’s brother introduced him to Andy Thorne in Puddletown, who had spent time living in a 1970 library van in Spain and had brought it home, where it was parked in a farmyard the other side of the road from the Blue Vinny pub – land now covered in houses.

He said: “Andy was driving that into Dorchester to sign on every two weeks, which wasn’t very practical.

I bought the van for a grand and a half and made a decision to go and find a monster, sink or swim.”

Steve made a video of his drive north, which was later shown on national TV under the title Desperately Seeking Nessie. The fascinating and truly evocative hour-long film, featuring newsreader Nicholas Witchell, politician Roy Hattersley and naturalist David Bellamy, is now on YouTube.

Loch Ness Monster sightings through the centuries

More than 1,170 official sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have been recorded, with recent reports including a mysterious green shadow near Urquhart Castle and a fast-moving dark object logged with the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

The first written account of the beast was in 565 AD, which claimed a water beast attacked a swimmer in the River Ness.

On July 22 1933, George Spicer and his wife claimed they saw ‘a most extraordinary form of animal’ cross the road in front of their car, with a large body about four feet high and 25 feet long with a long, wavy, narrow neck and no limbs.

It lurched across the road toward the loch 20 yards away, leaving a trail of broken undergrowth in its wake. Spicer claimed it had an animal in its mouth.

In 1934 the iconic ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ was published, later exposed as a toy-boat hoax.

Common explanations for the many sightings have been large eels, debris and wildlife and wakes from boats.

The most prolific Nessie witness is Alex Campbell, a water bailiff who worked at the loch for more than 40 years. He claimed to have made 17 observations of Nessie, starting in May 1934.

Though many of the sightings have been proven to be false, Steve’s faith remains unshaken.

He said: “Ninety per cent of the evidence is nonsense. Five per cent is good, and five per cent are deliberate hoaxers.

“Hopefully it will be me who finds it, given my track record. I’ve never embroidered any evidence, never endorsed something I’m not totally convinced by.

“If I were to solve this mystery then I hope invitations would come flooding in to go and investigate other monsters around the world.”

A few years after arriving at the loch, Steve bagged a permanent site at Dores Inn, right on the side of the loch. The landlord may not have imagined quite how long his tenant would stay, though…

Steve said: “I still pinch myself in disbelief that this excitement is all mine. Loch Ness is the Champs Elysee of the north – I stand out on the decking in front of my van in the moonlight, looking down the 23 miles of Loch Ness and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“It’s the best view – like an oil painting. Late at night I stare into it and the adventures of the last 35 years come back to me. Seven-year-old me could only dream of my joy at being able to live this life. It’s become less important over the years to get the message out.

“I’m more doing this for the curiosity of seven-year-old me.”

Steve doesn’t sit about endlessly, waiting for Nessie to show her face. Due to his location and his mission, people turn up all the time and he goes with the flow.

“I’ve long since stopped making plans, even thinking ahead to next week. I wake up and read my emails and there will be something completely unexpected. It frustrates the life out of my missus.”

Steve got married in lockdown. “We met here on the beach,” he said. “She turned up 25 years ago and we were mates for a few years and slowly I wore her down. We’ve been together 22 years and I never had slightest inclination to find myself in a church.

“We live separately, but in lockdown we were together 24-7 and got on so well. The beauty was we weren’t allowed to have more than six people in the register office.

“It works very, very, very lovely. She’s on the fence about Nessie though.”

Steve funds his very economical lifestyle by selling models of Nessie, perched on rocks. He got the idea when he visited his Dorchester-based friends Dave and Sam Peacefull-Day and saw a Fimo dinosaur on a coffee table.

“I went and bought some Fimo and started making very similar models,” he said. “All art is theft…”

Visitors snap the little models up, paying for Steve’s council tax, food and modest lifestyle. He is content.

“I have absolute certainty that something big is swimming about – it’s the majesty of this location and body of water.

“A large proportion of the population of the globe may conclude that the Loch Ness Monster mystery is either of no importance whatsoever or complete nonsense, but I’m content to plough on anyway because I’m fascinated.

“The universal message that I contain is that if you have a dream to do something – if you have a passion for something and you’re doing something that is less than satisfactory to you, instead take the risk, take the step, take the dive into making your life your adventure.

“I’m not saying come and find the Loch Ness Monster – but go and follow your dreams.

“I’m living proof that 35 years later, blimey it works. So that’s the most important message – do what you love.”