Farm staff
Simon Caple BA, BSc, VetMB, MRCVS
Simon joined Hampden & Simonside Vets in 2002 and was 
previously involved in gamebird work for Hy-Fly Hatchery, Lancs. Since 2002 he has spent most of his time developing the small animal facilities at Alnwick but also enjoys occasional farm visits.
Since the retirement of Jo Gidlow, Simon Caple and Joe Henry have taken over the main responsibility for Game Birds in the new group.
Joe Henry BVMS MRCVS
Joe, a 1998 Glasgow graduate, came to mixed practice in Alnwick, and soon became predominately a farm vet with a particular interest in disease prevention and health planning. After 3 years he went to work in New Zealand for a year which gave a good insight into farming and vetting without subsidies. Since his return, Joe has been helping to develop physical production targets for farmers as way to measure their animals health and to compare their stock performance year-on-year and to similar farms. Joe will mostly be working from our Alnwick and Rothbury branches.
Outside work Joe and his wife have had 3 children in 3 years which does not leave a lot of spare time but he is developing a pedigree flock of Hampshire Down sheep.
Deborah Bearder BA, VetMB, MRCVS
Deborah enjoys all aspects of large animal practice, as well as small animal medicine & surgery. She has been doing acupuncture on all species, mainly pets and horses, for 5 years, and finds this a very rewarding addition to conventional treatment. In her spare time she enjoys hill walking, swimming,s ailing, church bellringing, gardening, skiing and scuba diving.
Pam Brown BVetMed, MRCVS
Pam graduated in 2005 from the Royal Veterinary
College, London and joined Northumbria Veterinary Partnership after enjoying seeing practice there for 3 years. Pam enjoys all aspects of mixed practice and is now based at the Wooler branch.
In her free time, Pam helps out on her husband's farm, follows the West Percy Hounds and enjoys endurance walking, fell running, cycling and swimming.
Andrew Sawyer MRCVS
Originally from an East Yorkshire Farming family, Andrew moved to Alnwick in 1989 via Bristol University and a job in Zimbabwe. He joined the partnership at the merger of Hampden and Simonside Veterinary practices in 1991. Since then his work has been almost totally with farmstock and is a founder member of The North Northumberland Suckler cow discussion group. He has a particular interest in disease prevention and fertility. He also participates in vaccine trial work and the picture shows him with his tip over cattle crush, particularly useful for lame bulls.
Claire Riddell BVM&S, MRCVS
Claire is an Alnwick lass, born and bred, and is based at the Wagonway surgery. She qualified from Edinburgh in 2004, and since then has been working as a mixed vet here in Northumberland, and enjoys (most of the time!!) all aspects of working in a rural practice.
Her areas of clinical interest include cattle reproduction and health planning. Out of work her activities include skiing, horse riding, going to the gym and trampolining.
Jenny Hull BVetMed, MRCVS
Jenny hails from a farming family in North Yorkshire. She graduated from The Royal Veterinary College, London in 2007.
Jenny has recently moved to the Rothbury branch from Alnwick where she will take over Dick Thompson’s farm work when he retires and helps out on the small animal side. Out of work, she plays rugby for Morpeth women’s team and also enjoys shooting, horse riding, sea-kayaking, jogging and walking her dog.
Steven Carragher BSc, BVM&S, MRCVS
Steve first came to the Practice (then known as Hampden & Simonside) in 1995 as a student and is now a Partner, running the Wooler branch. Steve and his wife Fiona, who also works as a vet with us, have 2 young children, James and Beth, who try to keep Steve away from his other passion of water-sports.
His main veterinary interests are in herd and flock health and productivity. He has a special interest in bull fertility, spending a lot of his time evaluating bulls for fertility before the breeding season.
Steven Bradley BVMS, MRCVS
Stephen Bradley grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland and qualified from Glasgow University in 1999. He worked for 3 years in mixed practice in Durham before moving to the Aln Veterinary Group in 2003 to concentrate on large animal work. He enjoys all aspects of farm veterinary practice and is particularly interested in bovine fertility and mastitis, along with herd and flock health planning. His hobbies outside of work include cycling, running, swimming and playing squash.
Steven works mainly from our Morpeth and Ponteland surgeries and can be seen here with young son Aidan who is obviously also interested in sheep.
John Macfarlane BVM&S, MRCVS
John is the son of a third generation dairy farmer and was brought up on a 165 acre rented dairy farm in Perthshire. Having started milking cows at 4 years of age (!), it was, perhaps, inevitable that livestock would feature in his future.
John duly qualified form the Dick Vet in Edinburgh in 1984, came straight to Alnwick to work for Curry, Clark, Malone and Young in 1984, and was invited to join the partnership in 1988. He developed a broad interest in mixed practice and still enjoys treating companion animals and horses as well farm species. On the farm side, he says he’s game for anything. The motto is “If I don’t know, I’ll find out!”
His areas of responsibility within Alnorthumbria Vet Group are medicines, finance and the Wagonway Road Alnwick branch.
John’s input to veterinary politics/business includes BVA council, North of England Veterinary Association council, Society of Practicing Veterinary Surgeons council and XL Vets founder director. In all of these forums John tries to represent the interests of his farm clients. He has published articles for British Cattle Veterinary Association and the BVA’s educational journal as well as the occasional article in the farming press.
Away from work, time is spent on the hill, on the sea or on his bike.
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