Honorary Life Members

At the AGM in December 2014, three people were awarded honorary life membership of the NRG in way of recognising their extraordinary efforts and dedication to the Ryeland breed; Roy Lonnen, Richard Wear and Drew Taylor. Huge congratulations to all three.

Pictured below: Paul Dixon presenting Roy with his award.

From Drew Taylor

Honorary Life Member, Northern Ryeland Group

Away back in the early 80s, my late dairy-farming brother and I, replete after a fine meal, sat down to have a serious discussion on what practical action we could take to further the fine work of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

We had the Trust’s poster of breeds of cattle and sheep before us and, to cut a long story short, and with the bottle showing signs of distress, we made our decisions. He, with suitable acreage and accommodation, would go for Longhorn cattle and I, with much smaller acreage, would go for Ryeland sheep.

We both kept our word and by early 1982 he had six magnificent Longhorns and four in-lamb Ryeland ewes arrived at Broomwell from Richard Wear.

The choice of sheep also received the approval of a certain young lady at this time.

Having the Ryelands has been a wonderful experience for the whole family but the real joy has been the making of so many friends from all over the UK.

We hope that our efforts in helping to get new owners interested in the breed have helped the NRG to continue to go from strength to strength.

Our travels to sales, shows and private deliveries have taken us as far north as Rogart in Sutherland and Newport Pagnell at the other end of the country.

Initially some of our travels were carried out in vehicles and trailers not quite fit for the purpose like the Broomwell SST (single sheep trailer) or the caravan that lost its wheel on the A1 on the way home from the Great Yorkshire Show!

The peak of our travel experience was visiting two Ryeland flocks on our New Zealand holiday.

We have experienced the highs and lows of Ryeland breeding – one of the highs being the exploits of the home bred ram Broomwell Trojan and the very definite low being the foot and mouth cull wipe-out of our flock. We will never forget the assistance and support we got from fellow breeders on our road to recovery.

All of the foregoing is my way of saying thanks to the Northern Ryeland Group for my magnificent Honorary Life Membership Plate presented in my enforced absence at the AGM in November.

I would also like to congratulate Roy and Richard on their awards – I am proud to be in their company.

With Susan now firmly at the helm of Broomwell Ryelands and me sniping away in the background, we will hopefully continue to do good work for both the Group and the breed.