Well, I’m Ian Roscow and the Kent TRF history is a lot of my history, too! The Trail Riders Fellowship was born, as often happens with motorbike clubs, in a pub in January, 1970. That meeting, and the first ride, took place at the Valiant Trooper Inn, near Tring in Hertfordshire. At this time even the concept of a ‘real’ trail bike was still to be born, most trail bikes then were just road bikes with higher exhausts and maybe trials tyres. Nevertheless, it was the start of something big, a whole new pastime was forming and the enthusiasm was strong. As the word got out so regional TRF clubs were forming and the one in our area was called the South East TRF, SETRF for short.
Here’s a video of some very early TRF runs up in the north – so early there was no live sound on the movie!
At first it was my wife who got a trail bike, a Honda SL125. Her father was a keen trials and grass track rider (one of the founders of Brands Hatch actually, when it was a grass track), so I think that it was in the blood. Having seen this little bike, I was taken by the look of it, what it could do and the new trail bikes in the showroom looked amazing, so I sold my road bike and bought one, not knowing anything at all about trail riding. This was in 1975 if I remember correctly. I bought a DT400MX and we went out riding, trying to follow the paper OS maps as best we could. On our first ride we bumped into the TRF, well, Mike Rich actually, when my wife and I were discovering the local lanes around Gravesend. Mike was a member of the TRF and told us all about it. We really liked the sound of it, so we went along to the next meeting, in a pub of course.
The people of the TRF then were all extremely enthusiastic and we went out on rides with them and what an adventure it was! The people I recall then were Alan Jackson (the club chairman) and Stuart. We met at various pubs in and around Gravesend, usually only about 7 to 10 of us. Early on Alan left the club and Mike took over as chair. It wasn’t long before my enthusiasm got the better of me and I ended up running most of the runs. We rode all over Kent, Sussex and Surrey – well, it was the SE club, so it was all ‘our’ territory.
We even organised mini-enduros, very unofficial and casual, on a farm in Aylesford – I happened to know the farmer’s son from my school days – and everyone had a good time. This was the time when we were young and partying a lot, so, although the Sunday rides start time was officially 9am, I often, for obvious reasons, arrived at 9:30, so the start time became “9 for 9:30″…
The club was growing and we became fully involved in all things green laney, going to the national AGMs, various consultation and training meetings around the country, and getting involved with the KCC footpaths section and other user groups. We were really keen to look enthusiastic, friendly, knowledgable on the law, responsible and willing to help or fight as necessary. I think we achieved that. 🙂
At this point I must mention Norman Smith. Norman was the giant on whom we stand on the shoulders of. He fought for our rights on most of the lanes in this area before the TRF even got going. A lot of the very old records that we have are letters between him and various councils and the government where he is putting the case for a lane being kept open for motorcycles, so no doubt KCC and others created a lot of lanes that we’re riding today because of Norman Smith. We have a lot to thank him for…
Around 1980 Steve Neville joined the club and he brought all his enthusiasm with him. We were soon to start meeting in the Pied Bull Inn in Farningham, a site we would use for many years. The TRF was getting bigger now and local clubs were starting up in the other local counties, so we decided to become the Kent TRF. Our experience was growing and we were finding new lanes, going to magistrates courts to fight those that would ban us and worked closely with KCC as the new definitive map was being drawn up as part of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. We did lane clearing days, too, as many of the ones we were discovering were just plain over grown. The main run in Shadoxhurst woods was one of the big ones to be cleared, so we got the local council and other user groups involved to cut all the tress down and remake the route. It turned from impassable into a new route to ride, and it’s still ridden regularly to this day.
At this time, the early 80’s, there was no internet of course, so, to inform the club members of what we were doing we published our own A4 club newsletter. I’ll see if I can find a copy somewhere to show you how things were then… ah, found one, nearly 40 years old!
The club was growing quickly and our rides were getting more far reaching and more popular. Trail riding was really taking off. Even the TRF Trail magazine went from black and white to colour, but still in the A5 format. We got so large that we were holding events in Brands Hatch! We held fun days with a bit of trials riding and a low-key enduro on the land in the middle of the GP circuit – all hired for £100 for the weekend. Bargain! They soon cottoned on to what we were doing and raised the price so that we couldn’t afford it and started to run their own 4WD events.
We had a few club chairs (often called the Club Rep as they would go and represent the Kent club at formal national TRF meetings). Names I remember were Nick Moon and Les Lodge.
In the mid-90’s I got a job in east Kent and moved there and my involvement in running the Kent TRF declined mainly because of the long distance to the meetings. To keep riding I started the TREK club – Trail Riders of East Kent. We met at the Haywain pub just outside Wingham. That scratched an itch and it became very popular, proving that there was a demand in the area, but I really wanted it to be a part of the TRF. The members weren’t interested in that, but I thought it was important, so I left it and eventually started the East Kent sub-group of the Kent TRF, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.
At this time, up until 2006, we were still riding the RUPPS – Roads Used as Public Paths – the conversion to Byways hadn’t yet been fully completed. But a new bit of legislation was soon to hit us hard – the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC for short) was looming over the horizon. Up until that point we had been gradually and slowly claiming RUPPs as new Byways because, legally, we had many years to do that in, and each one took a lot of investigating, plus we could ride them (well, ride anything really) as long as there was some reasonable evidence for vehicular rights. At that time the accepted legal phrase we were relying on was “once a highway, always a highway”, meaning roads didn’t just disappear due to lack of use, and if there was evidence of an old road (and nothing to have legally closed it) then it was still available to ride or drive down it. However, despite all the promises made to us to the contrary by a certain Mr Knight, MP, the NERC Act put a stop to that. It seriously reduced the deadline for applications after which no more would be allowed, it ensured no ‘new’ Byways could be created and our right to ride, as long as there was some sort of reasonable evidence (like the 1st edition OS map), went out of the window. We put in as many applications as we could, which involved creating and submitting an evidence pack and putting up claim notices on each lane, but as the research time was really curtailed the content was not as solid as it could be, plus the previous positive attitude we had found at the KCC offices had, it seemed, now turned against us, most of our applications were ‘investigated’ and dismissed. This was a very bad time for the TRF, nationally as well as locally…
However, at a guess around 80% of the green lanes in Kent are still available to ride, and that number is expanding as we investigate other lesser-known routes. We still have regular rides all around Kent each of which easily take up a whole day to ride, so the pastime of green lane riding on a motorcycle is still more than viable and getting more popular as the trend towards adventure bikes continues. And the Trail magazine is now glossy and full sized!
Of course, there are still many who object to motorcycling in the countryside and are keen to have us banned and have the lanes closed to us, so we must still be vigilant and fight our corner, which is where the TRF really shines. As a fellowship we have a vast resource of skilled and experienced members who are prepared to keep our pastime going against those that would deny us. If you are already a member then please do offer any help you can to the club to help keep us going for another 50 years and to keep the green lanes open for all.
The Kent branch now has regular monthly meetings, one each in east and west Kent, has regular organised rides locally and further away (we even have occasional rides around Calais) and it also helps out at non-TRF events like horse endurances. If you’re not a member why not join up now and see if you are still enjoying it in 40 years time, as I have done and still do? It could be so much more that just a mini-adventure for you!