Meet the team

Our independent, award-winning farm shop, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022, was started by Anne and her husband, David, and is owned by the Mitchell family.

Originally, the venture was a simple potato store, where the couple sold potatoes and eggs from their farm.

Anne and David have since steered, developed and grown the farm shop into the thriving and successful enterprise it is today.

Anne is responsible for overseeing the whole shop and has been instrumental in helping the business win its nine 2022 Taste of the West Gold Awards and for achieving finalist status in the Large Farm Shop of the Year category at the 2023 national Farm Retail Awards.

Her home is the Mitchell family farm at Hillcommon, just four miles from the farm shop.

When she isn’t working, her favourite pastime is sewing. She also enjoys spending time with her family, especially her five grandchildren, and her friends, and walking and playing with her Springer Spaniel, Ruby.

Our multi-award-winning, independent, family-run farm shop was started by David and his wife, Anne, and is owned by the Mitchell family.

The venture started as a simple potato store with the couple selling potatoes and eggs from their farm, and they have since steered, developed and grown the farm shop into the thriving and successful enterprise it is today.

David is also a Chartered Accountant and senior partner of Mitchells Chartered Accountants, which is a specialist agricultural practice that acts for over 500 farming clients. These skills are used to manage the financial side of both the farm shop and the family farming business, which extends to 800 acres just 4 miles from the  shop and with which David is closely involved.

Sophie shares her time between our nearby family farm, run by her husband James, who is Anne and David Mitchell’s eldest son, and our award-winning Farm Shop.

While juggling a busy farm role and homelife, looking after her three children, she also oversees many innovative projects onsite.

Sophie, who’s been part of our team for more than 10 years and started on our shop floor, works behind-the-scenes to ensure the smooth running of our business.

As part of her day-to-day tasks, she deals with our general office admin and works closely with our public relations company to positively promote our brand, products and events.

Some of Sophie’s favourite Made at Rumwell items include our own farm beef and pork, which is available from our onsite Butchery. She also loves a sweet treat from our ever-growing Gluten Free range.

When she’s not working, Sophie enjoys spending her spare time with her family and, when possible, loves to go skiing.

After studying Agri Business at university, James joined our family-farm team.

During his degree, he did various agricultural placements including one with an outdoor pig farm. This gave him the grounding to launch our pig enterprise.

Our free-range pork is used for the award-winning sausages and bacon sold in our Butchery and by our Deli to make our legendary pork pies and Scotch eggs. It also features on our Café breakfast and lunch menus.

Along with the pigs, he is also responsible for our Angus beef cattle. The meat is stocked by our Butchery and used, with our pork, for our famous Café carveries, as well as our beef burgers…and much more.

James and his team plant our potatoes every spring and harvest them in the autumn. They are sold in the Shop and used in our Café too.

Plus, he oversees the team caring for the hundreds of hens laying eggs for our Shop and Café.

What does James love the most? Potato farming and his three children! He also enjoys tucking into a juicy Rumwell steak or a succulent piece of gammon!

Chris, who lives in Oake, joined our team in 2007. He looks after the day-to-day running of our award-winning Farm Shop including our customer service.

He helps handle everything from advertising through to creating our displays, and even produces all our inhouse promotional marketing materials. Chris is very artistic and creative.

He is involved in the Shop’s general administration too and works closely with our department heads and managers, as well as well our office team, and the Partners and owners of the business.

Chris often helps with supplier liaison and sourcing products with the ethos of supporting and championing Somerset, Westcountry and British food and drink producers at the heart of what we do.

When he’s not working, he enjoys running and cycling and goes to the gym. He also loves to spend time with his husband, Dan and their dogs.

Chris likes to cook, using Rumwell ingredients of course, and enjoys the odd glass of Rioja sourced from our onsite Wine Cellar.

To add to all this, he has a lifelong passion for The Muppets and even makes his own puppets in his spare time.

Terry, who lives near Ilminster, manages our Butchery department.

The father-of-two is on a mission to promote just how much of our meat comes straight from farm to fork.

He is passionate about supporting suppliers from Somerset and the Westcountry and is proud to stock only the very best of British.

Terry and the team don’t just provide you with the meat you need, they’re also on hand to give advice on how to cook it too.

Under Terry’s leadership, our Butchery recently won two 2022 Taste of the West Gold Awards – one for our traditional pork sausage and the other for our unsmoked back bacon.

The free-range, hand-reared pork used to make these products comes from our family-farm just four miles up the road from our Shop. The Butchery also stocks our Angus beef.

Terry is an expert when it comes to quality. He has been involved in butchery since he was 13, when he started as a Saturday boy.

He went on to work for some large butchery chains and, prior to joining us, he was employed in farm shop management for 25 years.

Scott from Taunton handles the day-to-day running and organising of our café kitchen. His job role includes planning the menus, managing the staff members in the kitchen, purchasing stock and making sure everyone is trained on food preparation and kitchen safety techniques.

Scott holds a range of City and Guilds catering qualifications and also took a bar and cellar management course. 

The father-of-two has nearly 30 years’ experience in the catering industry and has worked within our café for several years. Prior to being our Kitchen Manager, Scott was our chef and then second chef.

In his spare time, he enjoys keeping fit by cycling, swimming and going to the gym.

Lucy from Yorkshire handles the day-to-day running and stocking of our Farm Shop and Food to Go. Her role includes making sure our busy shop looks presentable and has plenty of stock, while also ordering all the products, and leading her team.

Lucy has worked with us since February 2020, prior to that she learnt a lot about managing a team in the care sector. She likes that there is always something new going on in her role and how much Rumwell has changed and developed since she joined us.

One of Lucy’s favourite food items is our famous Rumwell doughnut, specifically the classic jam and cream doughnut.

When she’s not working, Lucy enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, going on long walks, curling up with a good book or socialising with friends.

Lisa, who lives in Taunton and joined us in 2020 as our shop Assistant Manager, is our Deli Manager.

She makes sure the Deli counter is fully stocked with our delicious pies, pasties, quiches, Scotch eggs and all sorts of other savoury items and that it looks appealing to customers. This includes replenishing items and re-arranging displays.

Lisa and her dedicated Deli Kitchen team also make the ready meals, soups, jams, chutneys and marmalades available in our shop.

She enjoys providing excellent customer service and working closely with her colleagues.

In her spare time, Lisa enjoys walking her Jack Russell, Elmo and taking care of her horse, Ronnie. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and family.

Emma joined us in March 2023 and handles the day-to-day running of our Bakery. She ensures everything operates smoothly and the production of all our baked goods is consistently of the highest of standards.

Her role includes calculating what needs to be baked and ordering in stock, as well as the hands-on activities of making bread and doughnuts from scratch.

She also designs, bakes and produces all things sweet for us, including our delicious fresh cream cake displays.

Emma has advanced qualifications in pastry and a college diploma too. Emma enjoys creating new ideas and exciting ranges for our Bakery, as well as being part of our talented and dedicated team of instore experts.

Before joining us, she enjoyed an illustrious career in the industry including running her own restaurant and working as Catering Manager for the Royal Marines Norton Manor Camp in Taunton and at RNAS Yeovilton.

Sophie from Taunton is our Events’ Manager and oversees our events’ programme. 

Our new building, complete with its own bar and toilets, is an overflow for the Café for diners to use and can also be booked for use for private events, such as parties, anniversaries, vow renewals, wedding receptions, children’s parties and more.

Sophie takes bookings for people wishing to host meetings, activities and special occasions in the extension and plans our fantastic timetable of events for people to enjoy too.

She has worked in catering since she was 15 and has experience in everything from small boutique hotels to wedding venues.

In her spare time, Sophie enjoys being with her friends and family, swimming, going to the gym and baking.

If you would like to enquire about hosting an event in the new extension, please email Sophie via events@rumwellfarmshop.com.