Staff & Trustees

Helen Bagwell
Trustee
Helen is a farmer’s daughter and studied Agricultural Management at the University of Reading. She was Deputy National Coordinator for the Christian charity Farm Crisis Network (now Farming Community Network) from 2001 to 2008, when she left to have her first child. Helen lives in rural Somerset with her husband and two teenage boys and is actively involved in farming and a thriving village chapel community. Helen writes at The Owl Tree.

Sam Brinkley
National Director, Trustee & Treasurer
Sam entered Christian work in 1989. After Bible college, working with a missionary society in the UK, and assisting in the launch of an outreach project in Birkenhead, in 1998, he married Ginni. Their first home was in Norfolk, where Sam took up the pastorate at Burston Chapel under the umbrella of the FEBV. He and Ginni have remained there ever since.

Dr Peter Carruthers
Trustee
Peter served as Executive Director of Village Hope from 2016 to 2025. Originally an agricultural scientist, he has also worked in rural policy and environmental education. He has qualifications in science and theology. He was a co-founder and served as trustee and chairman of Farm Crisis Network (now Farming Community Network). For the last few decades, he has lived in rural Oxfordshire, Monmouthshire and Herefordshire. He writes at Village Link Online.

John Plumb
Trustee & Chairman
John and his family run a tenanted farm in North Warwickshire, close to the Birmingham conurbation. The farm has beef, sheep and arable enterprises, and also hosts educational visits alongside environmental stewardship. John spent some years in full-time church eldership, chairs the Agricultural Christian Fellowship, and is seeking to apply Biblical principles to agriculture.

Rev’d Steve Weatherill
Chief Operating Officer & Head of Mission
Steve has been with Village Hope part-time since March 2025, to re-envision mission across rural Britain. He was ordained in the Church of England in 2000, working non-stipendary as he ran his creative agency. In 2011, he started a ministry working across denominations (and none), a role he continues to pursue the rest of the week. He also writes and podcasts at steveweatherill.substack.com.

Mission Associate

Rev’d Richard Higginbottom
Farmgate Network
Richard, a retired CofE minister in Northumberland, has a farming background. After a museum career, he was ordained in 1985. A rural curate in Gloucestershire, a vicar in rural Derbyshire and a CPAS Consultant, he led a Fresh Expression before caring for his late wife. In 2025, he felt called to set up FarmgateNET, an evangelistic outreach to farmers. Visit the Farmgate website.