David Legh is the Chair of the DRC Steering Group. He spent his career as a rural Chartered Surveyor in general practice, latterly as Chairman of Fisher German LLP. Now retired, he concentrates on the management of the family-owned Cubley Estate near Ashbourne.
In 2010 David published “40 Years owning a Rural Estate – a retrospective and the challenges ahead” for which he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural University 100 Club. He was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 2006-7 and is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County. He remains actively involved with a number of local organisations and charities.
David is married to an Anglican priest, formerly priest-in-charge of a rural benefice, and now retired with permission to officiate. They have four children and eleven grandchildren. David is a member of the Chapter of Derby Cathedral, Diocesan Synod and a warden of his local church. He has been involved with DRC since being invited by the Bishop of Derby to join the Support Group in 2017.
Arthur grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, spent over 30 years living in the Cotswolds and has recently retired to the Derbyshire Dales. His best friend at school was the son of a farmer and his first paid job was grouse beating on the Duke of Devonshire’s Estate at Bolton Abbey.
Any spare time Arthur had in teenage years and early 20s was spent mostly underground! He went on caving expeditions to several remote locations overseas. After serving an engineering apprenticeship, his working life was devoted to health, safety and caring for creation, initially in the steel industry and then for a multinational corporation. This involved looking after farmers on agricultural estates as well as forestry and fishing.
The CofE ordained him in 2008 and he was a diocesan environmental adviser for eight years. During the same period Arthur was also a “house-for-duty priest” responsible for four rural parishes. He’s married to Margaret and they are blessed with two grown up children and three grandsons living in Matlock. Arthur can be contacted via Rev Phil Michell.
Carolyn grew up near Leicester and qualified from Cambridge Vet School in 2005. After a brief foray into small animal practice in London, she was bitten by the travel bug and moved to New Zealand to pursue her real interest – farm vetting. She spent the next three years learning to do things the Kiwi way in a rural, dairy-focused practice.
Carolyn returned to the UK in 2010 and since then has been a farm vet at Scarsdale Vets. She now helps to head up the farm team there. She is an RCVS Advanced Veterinary Practitioner in Cattle Health and Production, and is particularly interested in lameness, mastitis and infectious disease control, especially TB and BVD. She has recently become a Mental Health First Aider (through RABI).
Carolyn has been a Christian ever since she can remember and, through her life, has been involved in helping with and leading church youth groups, children’s groups, home groups and (at university) Christian Union groups. She is married to Andrew, a vicar, and they have three small daughters, two cats and very little spare time!
Carolyn loves God, loves her job and loves the privilege of being part of the local farming community. She likes nothing better than to sit round a farm kitchen table after a busy morning’s scanning, drinking coffee and talking about herd health, disease control, medicine use or milk test results!
I grew up in the idyllic Isles of Scilly. I attended the Methodist chapel which was where my faith came alive when I was aged 14. My working life has consisted of working in the printing industry, as a driving instructor and for the last 15 years in the Anglican church.
From the age of 10 I helped a family friend on his small holding, bringing on calves from just a few weeks old. I did this for several years. I also worked on another farm during school holidays – which I absolutely loved.
I come from a long line of Cornish farmers – a line which ended with my grandfather, so I am delighted to be bringing farming back into the family albeit in a supporting role. I have spent the last 15 years in rural ministry and I hope that the experiences I’ve gained will enable me to come alongside those wanting some pastoral, spiritual and maybe even some practical support.
I enjoy walking, photography, DIY and fixing anything that is broken.
Please contact me by phone on 07710 088972 or by email phil@derbyshireruralchaplaincy.org.uk
I was born in West Yorkshire but spent most of my school years living in South Manchester before going to University in Sheffield. After graduating I joined Greater Manchester Police where I enjoyed a challenging and very varied thirty-year career. Since retirement I have had the opportunity to help part time on a friends sheep farm in Derbyshire and have learnt so much and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I became a Christian aged ten and was fortunate enough to be part of a thriving church youth group, then university Christian Union and I’ve been active in church life ever since undertaking various leadership roles. I am excited that different strands of my life have come together and I can volunteer as part of the Agricultural Chaplaincy team.
I live near Bakewell with my husband , our black Labrador & some hens . I love gardening especially growing flowers for cutting.
As a teenager setting out on life, being a dairy farmer seemed in line with my strong desire to follow Jesus. Yet after 12 months’ milking, and an agric degree from Reading, life with Jesus has taken other turns: driving PSV and HGV, builders’ merchanting, practical building, drug/alcohol rehab (as staff!), more building, pastoring a small Baptist congregation. Now my focus has swung back to agriculture. In 2019, I began talking to Alan about the possibility of joining the chaplaincy, after what seemed like a nudge from God during a visit to Wirksworth.
In July 2022, my wife Michal and I retired from Sandhurst in Berkshire to Allestree, just 15 minutes’ drive from our daughter and her family and somewhat closer to our son and his wife in Glasgow.
I have a little experience of practical agriculture, rather more in the twists and turns of human life. Now that I’m ‘a pastor out to pasture’, I’m hoping some of my experiences of life might overlap with your own, and maybe even offer some encouragement as you try to make sense of how your own life has turned out. I look forward to meeting many of you and hearing your stories.
If you would like to contact Pete, call him on his mobile 07776 188587 or email pete@derbyshireruralchaplaincy.org.uk
From the age of eleven Alan grew up on a traditional farm near to Ashbourne having moved there from a smaller farm near to Uttoxeter. It was a mixed farm which helped Alan get to know most types of farm livestock, and on regular visits to cattle markets at Uttoxeter and Bakewell meeting the wider farming community, hearing about all hard the work and stories from some amazing characters’ who were dedicated to their lifestyle. During school holidays (and some Mondays in term times) Alan never missed a Monday at the old cattle market in Bakewell where his father Peter was mostly to be found in the calf ring buying young calves to grow on.
Alongside the farm the family established Blue Merle, a company which supplies natural animal health remedies and have had a unit in the Bakewell Agricultural Centre open every week since the new market opened. It was there that Alan met the team members from the chaplaincy initially having great support through an extremely difficult time of illness and bereavement in his own life through to eventually joining the team to offer some help drawing on his past experiences.
I was born in Chesterfield and had a natural love of cattle from the age of about five. I was soon making contact with a local farmer who had cows in the field opposite our house and visits to a dairy farm in Sheldon cemented my desire to make agriculture my career.
I studied for an HND at Harper Adams in Shropshire and after leaving in 1974, spent the next 30 years in practical farming, mainly on a family estate in Hertfordshire where I was the manager of two dairy herds for over 20 years. It was there that I met and subsequently married my wife of 34 years, Chris(tine). Our two boys had their early years in the farming environment.
After redundancy aged 51, I was fortunate enough to get a role with Genus breeding, covering a large number of farms across the East Midlands. We were able to settle back in my beloved Derbyshire!
My Christian faith, nurtured by a lovely Christian man who was on the staff at All Nations Christian College, which bordered on to the farm in Hertfordshire, has continued to grow over the years. It is now a privilege to join the farm support team of the Agricultural Chaplaincy. I hope that I can give something back to the lovely people in an industry that has given me so much.
From a young age, I have had a love of cricket and have never stopped supporting Derbyshire in good times and bad! I enjoy walking in the countryside, wildlife, particularly flowers and find working in the garden very therapeutic. My wife also says I am a ‘committee man’ and in have been in office with several organisations including Secretary & Treasurer of Derbyshire Holstein Club and President of Ashbourne Probus Club.
I am currently Chair of the Farming Life Centre at Bakewell. Like the Chaplaincy, this serves the needs of the rural community in many ways and the two dovetail well together.
I was born in a suburb of Nottingham to parents of non-agricultural origin so I have no idea where my desire, from as young as I can remember, to milk a cow came from!
I was fortunate enough to live within a few minutes of mum’s friend’s dairy farm and thats where I spent most of my Saturday mornings until they decided to take on a much larger farm in Warwickshire. I was at the crossroads at the time whether to stay on and do my A levels or leave school but when the farmer asked me if I would like to move with them and live in the decision was easy!
From there I went to Brackenhurst and Harper Adams Agricultural Colleges
My first job was as assistant herdsman at the well known Ellerton Ayrshire herd and I moved on to manage 80 cows near Rugby and a similar post in Beverley, Yorks before being asked to manage 300 cows plus followers at Longford
I am from a North Derbyshire farming family and so I’m delighted to be working as administrator for Derbyshire Rural Chaplaincy. I have always tried to do jobs where I can help other people, having previously worked in libraries, tourist information and for a grant fund – so I am really excited to be helping to support our rural and agricultural community.
I volunteer as often as I am able – I am currently involved with Pomeroy War Memorial Hall, a school PTA and a project for Derbyshire Records Office. I love anything to do with animals, reading and local history.
