About Us
Ben Simpson established Farm Effect in 2017 at his family home of Rattycombe Farm in Chudleigh. Traditionally not from a farming background, Ben started his career in theatre and television working for many years as an actor as well as teaching and facilitating drama workshops for schools and devising children's theatre performances. He also became heavily involved in the running of his family’s residential care home for the elderly where he was assistant manager and gained years of experience looking after elderly residents and those with dementia. Ben has always had his roots firmly fixed in the Devon countryside where he grew up with a passion for all things rural and a fascination with nature. Over the 12 years that his family have lived on the farm Ben has become much more involved in managing the land and livestock gaining great satisfaction from rearing his own stock, growing our own produce and caring about where our food comes from. As a family we have always interested ourselves in the welfare of animals learning a lot over the years about their behaviour and well being and have always enjoyed the positive affect that working with animals has to give.
Care of animals and caring for people are the two main things that we as a family thrive on and so combining the two to create our care farm just made sense. Ben’s parents, David and Jackie Simpson are retired care home owners who volunteer at Farm Affect. Jackie worked as a registered nurse for many years and still very much enjoys having contact and care for people and David ran a pet shop for 15 years alongside carrying out a great deal of animal rescue work. He also loves to share his green fingered tips with all and is responsible for most of our horticultural efforts!
