TWO bikers on a charity tour of 51 villages that lost no-one to the First World War visited the North-East at the weekend.

Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft’s 2,500-mile tour of the UK’s so-called Thankful Villages began at Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, near Aberystwyth, Wales, on Saturday, July 27, and is due to finish back there tonight (Sunday, August 4).

They hope to raise £51,000 for the Royal British Legion (RBL).

On Saturday, the pair – known as the Thankful Village Bikers – stopped their Triumph Trophy bikes at the Angel of the North, where more than 50 North-East bikers turned out to wish them well.

During a short ceremony, Rev Canon David Glover, rector of Holy Trinity Church in Washington and chaplain to the town’s RBL branch, blessed the adventure.

Mr Bancroft said: “This has been an amazing and very special week. The people we have met and the stories that we have shared have been truly awe-inspiring.

“Assembling here this morning and having a short blessing service underneath this icon the Angel of the North was very moving, very emotional indeed.”

Canon Glover said: “As we approach the 100 year celebrations of the start of the First World War next year, it’s fantastic that churches can open themselves up to the wider community, to show the memorials and commemorations to those that fought in that war and others since.”

The run also took in Scruton, North Yorkshire; Meldon, Northumberland; and Hunstanworth, County Durham. For more information, visit thankfulvillagesrun.com