The idea

Her Majesty's Prison Parkhurst, Isle of Wight
A strange place to start a blog about a bike ride? Read on.

On a warm sunny morning in July 1975, I found myself behind the locked gates of Parkhurst top security prison on the sunny Isle of Wight. It may have been sunny and warm on the outside, but there I was in a gloomy and intimidating B Wing, amongst the country's most notorious and dangerous men - murderers, rapists, terrorists, gangsters. Hard men serving incredibly long sentences who had nothing to lose were eyeing me up like a lump of fresh meat just thrown to the lions! To say I was a little nervous would be a huge understatement!

Was I glad I wasn’t one of them! It was my first day at work after finishing my training course at the Prison Service College at Leyhill, Gloucestershire. I stood there, a fresh faced young officer in brand new uniform and shiny shoes embarking on an interesting and challenging thirty year career. Looking around me I wondered if I had done the right thing. What had I let myself in for? I had chosen to be posted to Parkhurst so had nobody else but myself to blame for ending up in the dumping ground of the British penal system, the end of the road as far as jails go in this country.

I was soon introduced to other, more experienced officers on the wing, all of whom made me very welcome and helped me to relax and settle in. These were men who I depended on so much over the coming months and years in some very difficult situations – we were all in this together and relied on one another for our safety and for keeping the prisoners where they should be – in prison. I met some great and interesting men, but one of them, Finlay Mackenzie, stands out in my memory for putting an idea in my head on that very first day.

Finlay was a young Scotsman, slightly younger than me, who had joined the Prison Service some time before me. Asking where I was from, I told him Lancashire. “Och! That’s just across the water laddie!” was his reply, “I’m from the Isle of Lewis”.
I innocently enquired, “Where’s the Isle of Lewis then?”.  He quickly came back with “About as far away from this blooming island as you can get!” (In place of ‘blooming’ please insert what you can imagine a young Scot would say in such a conversation!)

We had a laugh about it and I said I bet that would make a good bike ride, from the Isle of Lewis, all the way down to the Isle of Wight. I told him, jokingly, that I would do it one day. Finlay thought I was mad to even suggest such a thing. It became a long-standing joke between us and Finlay was always asking me, often over a drink or three in the Officers Club, when I was going to do that ride.

All that was thirty seven years ago. I left Parkhurst and the Isle of Wight behind in 1987 to come back ‘up north’ and totally lost touch with Finlay.

I retired in 2005 after serving my thirty years and have enjoyed, more than ever, cycling around Britain and France. It wasn’t until recently that I thought, now that I have turned sixty, it is about time I did what every lifelong cyclist does and ride the End to End – Land’s End to John o’ Groats (Lejog). I started the planning for that ride last year, originally hoping to do it in September. Several things made it impossible for me to do it then so it was postponed until this year. But then I started to have second thoughts. More than five thousand people cycle Lejog every year, do I really want to follow in the wheeltracks of so many? I have always been an independent sort of cyclist and prefer to plan my own rides. 

That is when the ride that Finlay and I joked about so long ago came back to the surface.

I turned it upside down for logistical reasons (and to hopefully have a tail wind all the way!) and, at last, the 'Isle of Wight to Isle of Lewis Ride’, the ‘Sandown to Stornoway Ride’ would become a reality! The distance will be about the same as Lejog but it will be a route of my own making - inspired by Finlay Mackenzie. Provisional date for starting the ride - Wednesday 12th September 2012.

Next Post - 'The Plan' will follow soon