Meet the team looking after Thorneythwaite

With so many different aspects of farm management at Thorneythwaite we need a solid team – working away on the land and also doing the thinking. Here are a few of the key people we'd like to introduce you to and do say hello if you spot us in the valley.

Joe Weir shepherd at Thorneythwaite and his dog Ruby

Joe Weir the shepherd, and Ruby the sheepdog

Joe Weir is employed by the National Trust as a shepherd for Thorneythwaite for the first twelve months while we take the time to create our plans for the future of the land with the local community. He’s lived in the valley all his life at the farm which his great-grandparents bought in the 1950s.

Penny Webb, countryside manager

Penny Webb is the countryside manager for the North Lakes. She’s worked for the National Trust for more than 25 years as a ranger in both Yorkshire and Cumbria, she’s lived in Stonethwaite, Borrowdale since 2003. She manages the ranger team in Borrowdale, Buttermere Valley, Ennerdale and Whitehaven Coast and is a passionate advocate for sustainable land management.

Roy Henderson, area ranger for Borrowdale

Roy Henderson is the Area Ranger for Borrowdale and Newlands, he has worked for the National Trust in Borrowdale since 1982. He’s led a one-man mission for creating wheelchair accessible footpaths and viewpoints around Derwent Water, years before it became a mainstream thing to do. He’s also spent a career searching for Neolithic rock art in the valley.

Maurice Pankhurst, Woodlands ranger

Maurice Pankhurst is the Woodlands Ranger for the North Lakes. He has lived and worked in Borrowdale since 1996. His mission has been to halt any further fragmentation of the woodlands, reduce the pressure caused by years of grazing in the past and to enable the remaining fragments of a forest that to join up and to regenerate.

Andy Warner, ranger

Andy Warner started work as a ranger in Borrowdale in 1986, and has been repairing the walls, fences, hedgerows and paths ever since; helping to make our plans for access and conservation in the valley a reality.