It is a story more than 100 years old, but something that will live on through one of the most recognisable buildings in Britain.

In the early 1900s, the Winchester Cathedral was in danger of collapse due to subsidence.

That was when a a professional deep-water diver from South Norwood stepped in to save the day.

William Walker - or Diver Bill as some might now him as - spent more than five years single-handedly propping up the cathedral’s water-logged foundations, using more than 25,000 bags of cement, so that the groundwater could be pumped out.

If that sounds like hard work, then you are only getting half the picture.

Diver Bill worked in total darkness in trenches full of peaty water as much as six metres deep, wearing lead boots and a heavy diving suit made out of cloth and rubber – but no gloves.

For much of the time until the project was finished in August 1911, he cycled the 70 or so miles home to his family in South Norwood every weekend, returning on Mondays by train.

The cathedral honoured his contribution at a thanksgiving service in 1912 and George V (whom he had taught to dive) made him a member of the Royal Victorian Order; and there’s even a pub named after him in Winchester.

Unfortunately, his career was cut short when he succumbed to the Spanish flu epidemic and died in 1918.

Now the People for Portland Road community group is celebrating this "local hero" with the latest plaque in its Heritage Trail.

The "suitably unusual" plaque will be unveiled on at 2.30pm, March 17 on the wall of 118 Portland Road, his home in South Norwood.