A bit about me!

Serves you right for clicking about, trying to find links into the furthest reaches of the Internet!

I'm Ron Strutt, a fifty-something living in Woking in Surrey, who got back into cycling about ten years ago. After many years in IT (although when I started we called it data processing), I was made redundant from one of the Big 5 management consultancies in 1993 at the height of the recession. To help eke out my redundancy cheque, I resurrected the bike which had been bought for me by my parents at an auction in Norfolk, and had since been hanging, unused, in the garden shed. At first I used it just for trips into the town but then, with time on my hands, I started to explore some of the local lanes and tracks that I'd previously seen only from the car.

I'd never realised there were so many wonderful places to go cycling in the area, so I began to write a couple of local cycling guides to introduce them to other people, trying at the same time to make them something more than just a list of directions by finding out more about the places and countryside through which the rides passed.

In the meantime I had met Keith Dean, then a keen cyclist, and he encouraged myself and Bob, my next door neighbour, to join him on some longer trips. The story of those trips can be found in the Weekend Rides section of this website. After a number of these trips the bug of long-distance touring had bitten, and I wanted something more than a 2-day trip. A three-day trip to Cornwall followed, then a five-day ride on Sustrans routes from York to Harwich, then on to London, and then another Sustrans marathon from London to Padstow via Bath.

Then, spurred on by Keith, I started on the End to End. Having done that three times, I'm now thinking about my next direction...watch this space, as they say.

And, in case you were wondering, I am now gainfully employed again. After two years hunting for work, I found a job in my line of IT, only to be made redundant again after a couple of months. At that point I gave up, saw a job advertised for ticket clerks at the local railway station, and applied. Since that time I've had a variety of fascinating jobs on the railway, which is ironic because that's what I had wanted to do when I left school, only I let myself be talked out of it. Never mind, better late than never.

Which leads me on to my other interest in railways, which is as the founder of a preserved steam railway. When I was about 15 I set out to achive the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and the requirements for which included a six month project. I decided to do a study of the railways of the Isle of Wight, which at that time comprised two lines running from Ryde to Ventnor and Ryde to Cowes, still worked by vintage steam locomotives and carriages, the like of which had disappeared on the mainland. Needless to say, the Island railways were under threat from Dr Beeching at that time, and while my project was under way, it was announced that all but the short stretch from Ryde to Shanklin was to be closed, and the remaining part was to be electrified.

I thought it was a great pity that all this history might be swept away so, with a couple of friends, I started the Wight Locomotive Society to raise funds to buy one of the engines and some coaches. We eventually succeeded in our aim, helped by some very generous support from the painter David Shepherd, and, to cut a long story short, after a few years the Society acquired a stretch of the closed Ryde to Cowes line, which it now operates as the award-winning Isle of Wight Steam Railway, one of the Island's main tourist attractions. And I still have membership card no 1, of which I am inordinately proud. Oh, and I never did get my Duke of Edinburgh's Award – I could never quite master the high jump, which was one of the athletic activities required by the scheme.

Fame at last! The Isle of Wight County Press commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Steam Railway's re-opening 1971–1996.

Below: Time Team fans eat your hearts out.
That is who you think it is at the far end of the trench:
Phil Harding, with me wielding a shovel in the foreground.

My other great interest is history and archaeology. I'd love to get more involved in the latter on a practical basis but, as ever, finding the time is the problem. However I did get one opportunity to do some digging on a very special site, as the pictures show.

I'd joined the now-defunct Time Team Club and entered a competition in the its magazine for which the prize was the opportunity to attend one of their digs. I, along with another 4 winners, were given the chance to attend a dig at Birdoswald Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. Because this is a World Heritage Site, no mechanical equipment was allowed to be used on the site, so Phil Harding quickly roped in the competition winners to help shift a good few tons of turf and topsoil.

As we dug, we came across a lot of what looked as though it might be Roman roof tile, but the local expert quickly revealed that it was only pieces of Victorian field drain. However, within a very short while I came across something much more interesting, which Phil identified as a sherd of a Roman Samian ware bowl. What is more, it appeared to have a pattern on it, but it was only when he began to clean the dirt away that its secret was revealed.

Left: members of the Time Team, including Tony Robinson (left), Phil Harding, producer Tim Taylor, and Victor Ambrus examing my find...


Right: ...which caused some ribald laughter...



Left: ...when it was identified as a piece of 2nd century Roman pornography!

Updated: 19 January 2003