Louise van der Merwe, founder of The Humane Education Trust, has been named the thirteenth Honorary Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

The South African organisation promotes humane education in schools, universities, and veterinary training.

Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the centre, said: “In a world of what seems increasing violence, helping young people to strive for a more humane and less violent world is an ethical imperative.

“Louise has been a trailblazer in this cause and deserves worldwide recognition.”

A journalist by profession, Ms van der Merwe has spent her career promoting care and respect for all life through formal education.

She has also compiled and edited Animal Voice, a magazine documenting the development of animal ethics in Africa over the past 30 years.

Her approach reinforces the 2016 South African Constitutional Court ruling that animals are sentient beings with intrinsic value and capable of suffering.

The Oxford Centre’s Honorary Fellowship is its highest accolade, reserved for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to animal protection or the centre itself.

To further recognise her achievements, The Palgrave Companion to Humane Education, edited by Clair Linzey and Andrew Linzey, is dedicated to her.

It is the first international Companion volume to focus on humane education.

Past Honorary Fellows include Nobel Laureate Professor J.M. Coetzee, University of Winchester vice-chancellor Professor Joy Carter, and multi-Emmy award winner Bob Barker.

Born in 1966 and raised at Bemborough Farm near Guiting Power, he grew up helping his father Joe, a pioneering rare‑breed enthusiast and TV presenter, at the family’s Cotswold Farm Park.

This opened in 1971 and has gone on to become one of the country’s best‑known farming attractions.

When Adam took on the tenancy of the 650-hectare Bemborough Farm estate in 1999, he and business partner Duncan Andrews began modernising the enterprise.

Today, Cotswold Farm Park is home to more than 50 breeding flocks and herds and welcomes tens of thousands of visitors a year.

He joined BBC One’s Countryfile in 2001 after being selected from more than 3,500 applicants and has since become one of the show’s most familiar faces.

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Adam Henson joined Countryfile in 2001.

Adam fronts regular segments from his Cotswolds fields on everything from lambing and harvest to hedgerows, wildlife and the pressures facing modern British agriculture.

Away from the cameras, the 60-year-old has written a string of books and campaigned on food education and sustainability.

Last week, the BBC star took a trip to Oxfordshire to give a talk at Burford’s Cotswold Gate Care Home on Friday (June 5).

It was here that Adam spoke with the Oxford Mail about a variety of subjects, starting with the retirement home itself.

After having earlier remarked how he loved the place and joked to the audience that he needed to put his deposit down to join, he added: “It’s an absolute joy.

“I’ve driven up to the one in Derbyshire in the past as well as the one in Cheltenham, and then this is my second visit here.

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Oxford Mail reporter Ed Burnett with Countryfile presenter Adam Henson. (Image: Newsquest)

“This one is just 20 minutes from home, and coming through Burford is gorgeous.

“The home is beautifully capped and decorated, and I was sitting in this room that has amazing wallpaper, thinking ‘I’d quite like this in my house’.

“The interior design of these places is so lovely, and I’m getting to an age when I’m starting to think about my end-of-life, and where I’ll go and what I’ll do and what it’s going to be like.

“I’m hoping my children will be rich enough to pay for me to go into a very nice home like this!

“It’s a gorgeous place, and to be welcomed at the door was lovely, and everybody’s been so helpful, getting me cups of tea and all the tech work [with the talk’s presentation].

“So, you know I’m not just saying it, but it’s pretty faultless really.”

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Adam Henson at the Royal Three Counties Show. (Image: Royal Three Counties Show)

Adam also complimented the crowd, appreciating the small-style venue, which made for a more personal event.

“They were a really lovely audience, we had some laughs and some very good questions,” he said.

“It was quite intimate because there weren’t too many people in the room, so it’s quite engaging and, catching people’s eyes, you know you’re getting a reaction.

“You’re interacting with everyone around you in the room rather than when you’re speaking to hundreds of people, so it was lovely.”

The 60-year-old was recently at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire for the inaugural Great British Farm-Fest, which spanned three days at the end of May.

Speaking on the new festival, Adam remarked: “It was great, and it was an agricultural show with a difference.

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Adam Henson spoke about fellow farming TV star Jeremy Clarkson during the interview.

“The festival was celebrating British farming in the countryside, and we had the Clarkson’s Farm crew and a lot of the Countryfile crew.

“You had me, my team, and John Craven was there along with Charlotte Smith, Tom Heap and some farming YouTubers and heroes from around the country.

“So I think it was a really lovely celebration of British farming and with all sorts of ridiculous games and high-energy stuff going on, but then also serious debates about mental health and tech in agriculture.

“There was a big future of farming area where they had all sorts of robots and technology, as well as loads of food, farming and fun stuff.

“Stoneleigh Park was a huge site, so probably a bit too big in a way, as there’s a lot to get around, but we had some fantastic music on in the evenings.

“It was boiling hot, with it being at 30°C for three days, but it was great, and I’m 90 per cent sure they’ll be holding it again.”

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Adam Henson giving the talk at Cotswold Gate in Burford. (Image: Cotswold Gate)

Adam also spoke about his interactions with fellow farming TV star Jeremy Clarkson, whose Clarkson’s Farm series is also filmed in the Cotswolds, in Oxfordshire.

“We get on really well,” said the 60-year-old.

“I don’t know him very well, as I’ve only met him half a dozen times, but it seems to me from the people around him and from his own voice that he’s really found a passion in farming.

“He’s a great advocate for British agriculture, and he’s tied up with some great people who work on the programme with him.

“Clarkson’s Farm is very funny, it’s quite theatrical in the way it’s produced, but it’s brought agriculture and farming to a whole new section of society.

“And for me as a farmer who loves telling the story about British agriculture, you’ve now got programmes like Countryfile and Clarkson’s Farm, you’ve got YouTubers, you’ve got people on Instagram.

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Adam Henson lives in Gloucestershire, across the Oxfordshire border. (Image: Butcombe Pubs & Inns)

“Anybody who can talk about it and help educate the consumer and the British public, then it’s good.”

Adam revealed he had recently visited Mr Clarkson’s Cotswolds pub before the pair of TV stars hosted The Great British Farm Fest 2026.

The Farmer’s Dog, which the 66-year-old presenter bought for around £1m and opened in 2024, can be found in nearby Asthall.

“I watch Clarkson’s Farm, and in fact, we’re just we’re watching the series five at home this week,” said Adam.

“I love the jokes about opening the pub, and I actually went when we had all the preamble for Farm Fest.

“We all went there for the launch, but that’s the only time I’ve ever been, and I’ve never been to the farm shop over in Chipping Norton.”

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Cotswold Gate home manager Angelika Ziomek with Adam Henson. (Image: Newsquest)

Talking about the queues at Diddly Squat Farm Shop, Adam cheekily remarked: “Well, you can come to the Cotswold Farm Park and there’ll be no queue, and there’ll be lots of lovely animals and a nice farm shop!”

Whilst speaking about Mr Clarkson, Adam also discussed the rapid rise of the former Top Gear star’s Hawkstone alcohol brand and how it compares to his own tipple.

“I’ve got a beer that I do with Butcombe Brewery from Bristol, and it’s called Adam Henson’s Rare Breed,” he said.

“So I’ve had my beer for about five years, and it sells well. It’s in 50 or 60 pubs, and it’s in supermarkets and on Amazon.”

Adam then laughed and added: “But then I see Hawkstone, and I watch his beer going up so quickly and mine not.”

With the Burford care home stocking Hawkstone for residents, Adam joked: “Get rid of that Hawkstone stuff and get Adam Henson’s Rare Breed in!”

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Adam Henson with his beer. (Image: Butcombe Pubs & Inns)

As a Cotswolds native, the BBC presenter shared his picks for his favourite towns and villages to visit in the area.

“The little villages like the Upper and Lower Slaughter as well as through to Snowshill and Broadway are beautiful,” said Adam.

“Just driving up Burford’s High Street, it’s lovely, so any of those little Cotswold villages, and I also think Chipping Camden is really, really lovely. So there’s plenty of them.”

The 60-year-old also praised the countryside up in Yorkshire as he added: “My son works in finance up there in Leeds.

“I’ve got mates who farm up near Malham and that part of the world, as well as Wensleydale and around there.

“It is beautiful, that different type of countryside, the Yorkshire Dales and places are gorgeous.”

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Adam Henson has been on the BBC’s Countryfile for 25 years. (Image: Joe Giddens / PA)

In recent years, picture‑perfect Cotswold villages such as Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water have complained of being overrun by visitors.

Residents have cited clogged roads, overflowing rubbish and “TikTok tourists” crowding outside homes purely to film content.

Local councillors have warned of “overtourism” bringing traffic “carnage” on peak summer days.

Some villagers have described the sheer number of day-trippers and coach parties as “intolerable and unacceptable”.

Speaking on the influx of tourists in the area, Adam said: “I think it’s great. I mean, the Cotswolds used to be the way through to the coast.

“When my dad opened the Cotswold Farm Park in 1971, local people petitioned against it because they didn’t want tourists blocking up the roads.

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Adam Henson is a lover of dogs, which was the topic of his talk in Burford. (Image: supplied)

“Now, here we are 55 years on, and tourism is a massive thing and keeps the local economy going to a certain degree, with the pubs, hotels and restaurants helped by tourists coming to the area.

“I don’t think it’s lost its charm and its beauty as you go into some of the Cotswold villages, and they’re still beautiful.

“Just looking out the window here in Burford, you can see that even with more modern buildings, we’ve still got that lovely Cotswold stone, that elotic limestone.

“So yeah, I think the development and uplift of any area is a good thing as long as you can maintain and retain the charm.”

The Countryfile presenter then spoke about what’s next for him with some exciting updates from his own farm across the border in Gloucestershire.

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Adam Henson has lived in the Cotswolds his whole life.

“At home on the Cotswold Farm Park, we’re just working hard to try and keep that going and looking after all our rare breeds,” said Adam.

“Our Suffolk Punch mare has just given birth to a filly foal, so that’s a really lovely thing to happen.

“With the farm, we’re moving more into regenerative farming, which is looking after the soil and the environment whilst producing food.

“For me, I’m continuing my work on Countryfile and doing more social media like YouTube stuff, trying to get into that world more, and then doing corporate bits and pieces.

“I’m at the Royal Three Counties Show next weekend at Malvern for a couple of days on the Friday and Saturday, so just more of the same really.”

The 80-year-old actress was made a Companion of Honour for services to drama.

There are only 65 Companions of Honour at any one time.

Dame Helen, from London, has visited Oxford to perform and film, famously starring as a former Oxford history professor in the 2019 crime thriller The Good Liar.

The actress, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen, received the honour just days after footage circulated on social media showing her being verbally abused while walking in central London with her husband.

The footage, which was filmed last year, showed the 80-year-old being called an “evil Zionist” as she walked in a street in Tower Hill in London with her husband, American film director Taylor Hackford.

She was previously made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2003 for her services to drama.

She boasts a prolific acting career spanning over five decades, with her first major credit in 1969’s Age of Consent.

Dame Helen also featured in the 2003 film Calendar Girls, a heartwarming true-story comedy about a women’s group creating a nude calendar to raise money for charity.

She is the recipient of several accolades including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Laurence Olivier Award.