A charitable organisation, the Cordwainers promote and encourage excellent leather design and workmanship, at the same time we also seek to improve the prospects and opportunities of young and disadvantaged people.

Following on from the success of last year’s fundraising marathon and skydive the boys are back again with an even more adventurous scheme. This time it is cycling 1,400 miles in less than 20 days!

Alex Thorne, Daniel Emerson, Tom Chamberlain and James Shaw turned to our history for inspiration for a challenge to raise funds for the Royal London Society for the Blind and their Dorton House School. The result is that they are re-enacting the traditional trade route our shoemaking forebears depended upon by carrying some ‘cordwain’ from Córdoba in Spain over the Pyrenees, through France and back to Dunster Court in the City in London. 

The challenge will be undertaken without a support vehicle and success will depend upon the team’s physical fitness, ingenuity and capacity to perform as an effective unit. With less than 8 weeks to go they are training hard, breaking in the padded shorts, learning essential bike maintenance and brushing up the local lingo.

Their target is to raise £30,000 to provide equipment to enable blind and partially blind students’ greater independence and a better quality of life. 

We hope you can dig deep and sponsor them by visiting the JustGiving webpage http://www.justgiving.com/Cordoba-to-London-Bike-Ride. 

Alternatively you can send a cheque to the office made payable to ‘The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers Charity’. Please write Charity Bicycle Ride on the reverse of the cheque.

Follow the team's progress on twitter...