About Us All

Ring Managers

Steve & Sandi Ackrill
We both come from farming families, Sandi (nee Crockford) from arable/beef and Steve from dairy/arable/game rearing. We have formed our own Ltd Management Company and through this manage the Machinery Ring, ongoing amenity maintenance contracts and some farm secretarial and HR contracts (outside the Ring). We met through Berkshire Young Farmers, and have lived in the village of Great Shefford, for the past 22 years and have three children. Steve is still involved with Young Farmers, serving on the Advisory committee of our local club and also sitting on the Berkshire Executive committee. Steve is a Parish Councillor in Great Shefford and Sandi ex parish clerk of several years. Sandi’s background was initially in the hotel/hospitality/ conference/wedding sector followed by 10 years in telecommunications industry, she was working part time for the Ring for two years before becoming Manager. Steve has been working in the agricultural industry for the past 30 years and has experience in dairy, arable, game farming, amenity work and agricultural HGV low loader work and enjoys shooting and land rovers & has recently become Chairman for the Machinery Ring Association of England (MRA). Sandi is also Secretary to the Berkshire Branch of the RABI.

Camilla West – Assistant Manager
Camilla graduated from the Royal Agricultural College with a degree in Property Agency and Marketing and went straight into Estate Agency. She has worked for a few agents over the last 10 years, the latest being Humberts, which she left in 2013, to have a baby. She is married to Andrew West, who is an agricultural farm contractor and have two sons. She joined TKMR in 2015 to help with the administration on a part time basis. Outside the Ring she enjoys cookery, sport and travelling and is involved with Shefford Young Farmers sitting on the Advisory Committee & Berkshire RABI.

Ring Directors

Geoff Elliott (Chairman)
Geoff has been a Machinery Ring member for some twenty-five years & a Director since 2004. After a career change in his twenties, Geoff worked his way through tractor driving, farm & estate management & then farming in partnership, before starting his own company in 1999. For the next twenty years, he operated a contract farming business, cropping up to 4000 acres for nine landowners across North Hampshire & into Berkshire, on a mixture of Farm Business Tenancies, contract arrangements & stubble to stubble agreements. Geoff ‘retired’ in 2019, selling all his equipment. He now has a part time job ‘just’ looking after a couple of thousand acres for a non-resident landowner & mentoring a recently recruited farm manager. He was the founding Chairman & remains a Director of Hampshire Training Providers. He & Sheila have two daughters, and currently three grandchildren.

Ben Butler
Ben farms with his father at Avebury, near Marlborough on a 1000-acre mixed unit, comprising of arable & finishing 100 Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle and sheep. In addition, 1000 acres are contract farmed and rented under four different agreements. Before returning to the farm, Ben worked as an Agricultural Business Consultant for Savills in Salisbury.

Tom Martin
Tom joined the Board of TKMR in 1999 and became Chairman in 2005, but has decided to stand down as Chairman in 2020. Tom comes from a farming/farm management background. In the early 1990’s Tom was given the opportunity to start his own largely agricultural related services business, which over the last 20 years has diversified to cover a wide range of activities. Three years ago, Tom took the opportunity to sell part of the business & now concentrates on the vermin control & fumigation. Tom lives in Micheldever with his wife & 2 children.

Stephen Doble
Stephen is a fourth generation tenant farmer and farms 1,300 acres of rented, contracted and owned land near Henley. A beef finishing enterprise is run alongside the main arable business. Before returning home to join the family partnership in 2009, he worked as a farm manager for the Co-op Farms in Yorkshire. Stephen joined the Board of Directors in 2014, continuing a long family involvement with TKMR and he is keen to create further opportunities for our members.

Derek Cheriton
Derek comes from three generations of farmers who farmed in Fawley, Nr Henley-on-Thames for over one hundred years. On leaving school at fifteen years of age, Derek was employed by the owners of Fawley Estate as a trainee caring for a herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle. Derek soon learned that this was not the route for him & moved onto operating farm machinery. By the time he left, some twenty years later, he was farm manager. In 1995 Derek started his own business DRC Contracting & began crop spraying and spreading across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire. Derek has been a ring member for the past twenty two years.

Kevin Smith

Kevin lives in Oxfordshire with his partner Louise. He attended Berkshire College of Agriculture where he studied agriculture. Over 15 years ago Kevin established Pasture Care which he owns and manages. Pasture Care was originally established to look after the needs of the small equestrian establishment and despite expansion into other areas, this still forms a valuable part of the business. The business has progressed naturally into agriculture, which has now become the mainstay of the business. Whole farm contracting is something he is very passionate about, but he also offers general contracting services including drilling, tree shearing, hedge cutting and hay making, to make but a few. Outside work Kevin enjoys shooting.

I have been a Member of the Ring for 16 years and our partnership works really well – as a demander initially I used the Ring for hiring various machinery mainly Plant Hire and their bespoke system tells them exactly where to look for the exact machine required. I purchase all my fuel via Steve and Sandi and it’s always supplied competitively, having access to several suppliers allows extra delivery options when I require fuel urgently. The phones/emails are monitored or answered 7 days a week and when required weekend assistance is always given. I use the Ring as source of income and very often receive enquiries for harvest work, spraying, grass clearance, baling and wrapping, tree clearance, ploughing and many other jobs I never know quite what I will be asked when they call! If I get a client through the Ring I always ensure I support it to ensure its continuation and success and therefore my invoicing continues to go through them, even if the Client contacts me direct on future occasions, as I never know when I have a breakdown or the weather lets me down I can always rely on Steve and Sandi to help find backup.

Steve Thompson

Director / D & S Thompson Contracting Ltd

Hampshire Training Providers has been an Associate Member of Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring for 15 years. We work in co-operation with each other to offer all TKMR Members our training courses at our Members rates without the need for sign up to our particular group. The Machinery Ring helps advertise our courses free of charge and Ring Members can book any course by simply calling into the Ring office Steve, Sandi and Camilla then liaise with us. Benefiting our training group through access to a large coverage of potential course candidates, invoicing is carried out through the ring and the funds arrive directly into our account, TKMR benefit through having another service to offer its members.

Hampshire Training Providers

Whitlow Agricultural Contractors has been a member of The Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring for 20 years now. We have been more of a supplier to the Ring than a demander. Jobs can be very varied at times. We spent four months working at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport when it was being built. Moving trailers and building equipment around the site. We run a Muck Spreader Hire business and the Ring do hire our spreaders for demanders. The Fuel ordering service offered by the Ring is excellent. One phone call to the office and the job is done. The Machinery holds a Farming Conference once a year with complimentary place for each Member including a supper. This is very well organised and they have good knowledgeable speakers on things that are relevant and topical with regards to farming practices.

Brian White

Whitlow Agricultural Contractors

The Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring opens us up to a huge potential market place which would otherwise be unattainable to us as a supplier. As a demander the TKMR have at the end of the phone an infinite source of machinery, materials and specialist subcontractors to fill any gap on large projects or just fire fighting for those unseen events.

Joe Hayes N.D.A.H.

Managing Director / J H Landscapes Ltd

We have used the Ring since 1996 for the majority of our arable operations and have always been very happy with the service over the years. The Ring has allowed the flexibility of using different types of equipment on challenging ground and adverse weather conditions. We currently use the Ring for ordering fuel which allows us to receive a competitive price and prompt delivery. The office number is always available and they are very helpful.

Stephen Goddard

Albedale Farms Ltd

I have been a Member of the Ring since it first started 25 years ago, with a number of businesses. We currently use the Ring from as a Demander for fuel and occasional plant hire. Using the Machinery Ring for the Fuel orders saves me time ringing around for quotes every time, as well as having accounts with a number of suppliers they receive daily group buying prices for Kerosene, Gas Oil, Derv to the office, one simple email stating how much I require and preferred delivery days is all it takes, and Steve and Sandi are on hand to oversee the order from start to finish and always help iron out any delivery issues. From a Supplier prospective I have a number of customers who are also Ring Members, they contact me to arrange their requirements, we do the work and simply invoice through the ring. We are also on hand to quote for occasional TKMR customer requirements, anything from removing Tyres, or Hazardous Waste such as Waste Oil or Pesticide Disposal, even free advice for a Member’s particular requirement. All invoicing is simply done by email and payments are collected and paid to me via by Direct Debit.

Ian Kitson

Kitson Recycling Ltd

When I started DRC contracting 21 years ago it was a bit daunting as I had always been employed from the age of fifteen one of the first people I talked to was Michael who quickly convinced me to join The Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring, at first it was just the odd job but as the years went by I found more and more work even some whole farm work but I still enjoy the odd phone call from the ring asking can you just?. We nearly always find a way to do some of the oddball jobs like ten miles of pipeline bund spraying or together with Johnny Cantlay a thousand miles of pavement spraying! That one request made us scratch our heads. However we coped, I wouldn’t want to work without the supportive staff at the Ring behind me now as it is an important part of my spraying business now.

Derek Cheriton

DRC Contracting