His father, Leslie Henson, was a well-known comedy actor, and his mother Harriet Collins was also a stage performer, using the name "Billie Dell".
[2] The family moved to Northwood, where as a child he enjoyed visiting a nearby farm where they still used working horses and milked the cows by hand.
He worked for Earl Bathurst, then managed Salperton Park Estate near Cheltenham, before taking over the tenancy of Bemborough Farm from Corpus Christi College, Oxford with a former schoolfriend, John Neave.
[2] He started to keep rare breeds, including Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, and in 1971 opened the Cotswold Farm Park to the public.
[3] He was the founder-chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and received an MBE in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to conservation.