THE ROAD TO AGINCOURT

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Me, Jon and Graham are raising money for 2 charities, the NSPCC and St Lukes Cheshire Hospice by cycling a round trip of 500 miles from Harfleur to Agincourt. We would like you to consider splitting your sponsorship monies between the 2 charities for the reasons outlined below.

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Mark Jephcott, Jon White and Graham Simmonds will set off on Wednesday 26 August 2009 to raise money for the NSPCC and St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice by cycling a round trip of 500 miles following the route that King Henry V took in 1415 from Harfleur to the Battle of Agincourt.

The idea behind the journey was inspired by the 1990’s BBC TV series ‘War Walks’ written and presented by Professor Richard Holmes. One of the programmes covered the Battle of Agincourt and told the story of Henry’s march across Northern France to the battlefield, though of course his army didn’t do it on bicycles!

Mark explained; ‘I was inspired by the series and having performed in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’, one of his greatest plays, I had always been interested in taking on the challenge of cycling ‘The Road to Agincourt’ but, like so many other things in life, had never got round to doing it. So Jon, Graham and myself agreed to do it this year for charity.

“Two acting friends of ours, Terry Chandler and Roger Metcalfe, tragically died in the last 18 months and they are very much missed and so we wanted to do something to support them.

We asked their families if they would be happy with the idea of us doing this trip to raise money for the charities that Terry (NSPCC) and Roger (St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice) had an interest in and they have given us their blessing’.

King Henry V set sail from Southampton for Harfleur on 11 August 1415 with 1500 ships, the biggest armada ever assembled at that time, and landed on the pebble beaches of St Addresse which is now on the outskirts of Le Havre.

‘The Road to Agincourt’ will start at the landing beaches at St Addresse and then take in the towns of Harfleur, Fecamp, Dieppe, St Vallery, Amiens, Peronne, Albert, Doullens and finally Agincourt. The journey will take 10 days with an average of 40 to 60 miles cycling per day with a one day rest day at Peronne.

Mark commented: ‘We had always intended to fund the trip ourselves so that all the money raised from the public would go to the charities concerned. However, we have received a very generous sponsorship given specifically to help us cover some of the costs of the trip from IP netix formerly Phase Telecom based in Altrincham.  Its Managing Director Kevin Boyer who also knew Terry and Roger has been very supportive of the project. We would also like to thank John Keen who helped to prepare and train us for the journey and Martin Oldfield who helped us with photography.

Agincourt is a word that has always resonated in England because it remains one of our greatest military victories, won by one of our most charismatic and mythical monarchs

King Henry V.

Who knows, the challenge of cycling the ‘The Road to Agincourt’ could one day become another great cycling journey to stand alongside ‘John’O’Groats to Lands End’ or ‘London to Paris’.