Queen Camilla’s poignant promise as she visits farm helping children with mental health

Queen Camilla has praised the tireless efforts of a small community farm who help children live their lives to the fullest, while helping to battle mental health and behavioural issues

The Queen has heralded the work of a community farm improving the lives and mental health of hundreds of children.

Camilla visited Lower Shockerwick Farm, near Bath, Somerset, which is run as an educational centre by Jamie’s Farm helping teens with attendance, behaviour and mental health issues at school.

As part of the social programme, the young people live and work as a family group on the farm for five days, mucking in moving livestock, looking after animals, mending walls and cooking for each other.

The charity, which the Queen has been patron since 2019 and has visited nearly all of their seven farms, introduces a “total digital detox”, with no phones allowed as the youngsters connect with nature and get one to one support from expert staff.

The results have been praised by industry and educational experts as being “incredible”, with 70% of teens who had visited a farm said it had improved their mental wellbeing and showed improved behaviour six weeks after visiting a farm.

Two thirds of the teens marked as having concerning attendance at school are no longer of concern six months after visiting a farm, official figures show.

Today Camilla, 77, tucked into homemade lemon curd on the farm as she helped children make cupcakes during her visit. The site in Bath is the seventh site operated by the charity which offers young people who are experiencing challenges at school different opportunities.

Since Jamie’s Farm was established in 2009, it has welcomed more than 16,000 young people to their six existing sites in Bath, Hereford, Monmouth, Lewes, Skipton and a city farm in London Waterloo.

Camilla, who is Patron, met founders Tish Feilden and her son Jamie, and was taken on a tour of the farm by Mr Fielden and his fellow co-chief executive Jake Curtis.

She met staff, volunteers and young people undertaking activities in the orchards, kitchens and gardens. In the kitchen, the Queen met 11-year-olds Mantaj and Mia, who were making lemon curd cupcakes using the zesty preserve that had been produced the day before.

Camilla also helped water calibrachoa, geraniums and verbena which had been planted by Gabriel, aged 10, and 11-year-old Adrian. To commemorate the occasion, the Queen unveiled a stone plaque and told guests she planned to visit the farm in Skipton as it was the only site she had not been to.

“I am yet to get to Yorkshire, but that will be next on my agenda, I promise you I will get there,” she said.

“It’s really thanks to everybody here that this has happened at this really wonderful ancient farm and I look forward to seeing it in a year’s time with all the children.”

Jamie Feilden, co-founder and co-Chief Executive of Jamie’s Farm said: “Today was beyond all expectations. We have been building up to this for a long time and to be able to show it off to our wonderful supporters, with Her Majesty’s endorsement, was an absolute honour.

“We are blessed to have her as a patron because she believes in what we do. It’s in her bones, she loves the countryside, she loves horses and she loves this area. She really believes in our work and cares about it.

“This seventh farm for the charity means 500 more transformational experiences for young people in a setting that is like a picture postcode or something out of a children’s book. I hope it evokes feelings of peace, calm and fun in the children that come here and offers opportunities for purposeful work and changed lives.”

Before the Queen departed, she handed over a basket of cuttings and seeds, including foxgloves, hollyhocks, mint, rosemary and blackcurrant, taken from her garden at her private home near Lacock in Wiltshire. “I hope I can come back and see them thriving,” she added.

Jack Carter, 24, first visited Jamie’s Farm when he was 12. Jack will be one of the team working with young people at the new farm opened by the Queen.

Jack said: “Jamie’s Farm has been transformative in my life. Back when I was 12 and coming for my first visit I didn’t see a future for myself, I just saw coping. I was no longer in touch with any of my family and that was very disconcerting, I didn’t know what would happen to me. But Jamie’s Farm gave me massive support, now I’m a part of their family and they’re a part of mine.

“It was an honour for the Queen to officially open our new farm, and her visit shows just how important and life-changing Jamie’s Farm is.”

Tish Feilden, co-founder of Jamie’s Farm said: “With this beautiful new space we will be able to offer that indelible memory to 500 more young people each year. They help to create that beauty and atmosphere, whether they are planting in the garden or cooking for each other or caring for the animals.

“I love the fact Her Majesty genuinely believes in what we do, it’s a great privilege. She’s had a rural background so she understands the transformational power of this countryside. It’s a genuine interest and those conversations flow easily.”