BEWDLEY people have something to celebrate this year, though perhaps not all are aware Bewdley has a special reason for marking the centenary of the death of social reformer and art critic John Ruskin.

The man who knows most about his connections with the area is one of Bewdley's more unorthodox personalities, Dr Cedric Quayle of Bowcastle Farm. A stalwart member of the Bewdley Baptist Church for 30 years, a forester, roofer, Bewdley historian and member of Bewdley Museum management committee, a mountaineer and more, he leaves a trail of surprises in his life.

This year he is involved with the John Ruskin celebrations as secretary of the Guild of St George which looks after, in particular, a Ruskin museum in Sheffield.

Dr Quayle's grandfather knew the great man who devoted his life to trying to lift working people out of the drabness of their lives into an appreciation of art.

The trust owns pockets of property in various parts of the country and in Bewdley as well. They include land at Uncllys and areas of woodland, which form part of the Wyre Forest.

Dr Quayle spends many hours of his life looking after the deciduous tree areas of the forest for private landowners.

He was born and bred in Bewdley, going to university to take a doctorate in textiles in order to be useful in the family carpet business. When Quayle Carpets folded in 1979 he started training for coppice management in Wyre Forest woods. His involvement coupled with a Manx ancestry led him into the headlines recently as a key figure in a project to plant an oak forest on the Isle of Man.

Bewdley schools became involved in collecting thousands of Wyre Forest acorns two years ago. They were sent to Manx schoolchildren who grew on the saplings and planted them last month.

Dr Quayle who with his wife, Thelma, brought up two children, treasures the memory of watching the planting. "It was fantastic to see all those children coming together to plant 6,500 trees."

But it was not the first time Dr Quayle was in the glare of publicity. His mountaineering exploits in the Andes two years ago when he fell ill saw him at the centre of a helicopter rescue drama. Climbing in North Wales and exploring inhospitable areas of the world (he was recently in Antarctica) after a history of conquering peaks in the Himalayas, the Alps and North America remains a major part of his life.

He attributes this to there being a spiritual dimension for him as a Christian.

"When you are high on a lonely mountain looking over the world you feel the wonder of creation."