John’s family have farmed around Shimpling for 4 generations and can trace Pawsey family history back in the area for over 300 years. John has farming history on both sides of his family.

John’s mother was an Alston who were early Scottish pioneers who came down from Ayrshire in the late 1800s to rent farmland in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk bringing their cattle and farming equipment on the train with them. John’s great grandfather John Wood Alston settled and bought Lavenham Lodge Farm in 1908 which John still farms today.  Since the 1990s the farm has become even more of an extended family affair with Alice Pawsey focussing on education, events and property with more recently the next generation joining to help take the farm forward.