Next Sunday (25 October) is St Crispin’s Day and also the 600th anniversary of one of the most famous battles and victories in English history: Agincourt.

Amazingly, there is a Whaley Bridge link to Agincourt. One Roger Jaudrell – from the family now known as Jodrell – was one of King Henry V’s archers at the Battle of Agincourt, in northern France. Luckily for him, he evaded capture by the French, whose treatment of English archers was cut to cut off their fingers.

Inside St James’s church at Taxal, a Jodrell family memorial stone records Roger’s service at Agincourt, and his death eight years later. The memorial stone slab, in the chancel floor, was installed in 1925 – just a few years after the 500th anniversary of Agincourt – when Dorothy Ramsden-Jodrell, wife of Lt-Col Henry Ramsden-Jodrell, presented new choir stalls to the church.

The very first name carved in the stone is William Jauderell, known as ‘The Archer’, who died in 1375. He is remembered more than 700 years on.

Next is Roger Jaudrell of Agincoirt, and with yet another spelling change of the family name, a George Joydrell , who died in 1463. And so the
generations are recorded on the memorial, up to 1756.

• Col Ramsden-Jodrell, one time lord of the manor of Taxal, was a benefactor to the 161st Manchester Scouts now known as ‘Jodrell’s Own’, who visit St James every year on their annual camp. The colonel’s grandson Michael, now living in Dorset, was an honorary member of the 161st as a child. Two years ago, with