Obituary to Dreda Randall, founder of Monach Farm in Hilton

Dreda, who died on May 7 after a short illness, was originally from Essex.

She established Monach Farm in Hilton in 1977 when she moved to Cambridgeshire with her husband Dr Roland Randall, for his work at the university, and from there her legacy has grown.

She grew up owning dogs, goats and horses, and competed in local shows as a youngster and was an active member of the Essex Hunt.

Dreda spent many hours riding across the countryside on her pony William, whom she bought as a youngster and kept all his life. He lived into his early 30s and helped many children start their riding careers.

Dreda Randall leaves an amazing legacy linked to her love of all creatures great and small. (Image: Randall family)

Following their marriage in 1966, Dreda and Roland lived in Montreal, Canada, for two years, whilst Roland was doing his Master of Science.

This was the only period of her life when Dreda did not have animals by her side.

They returned to Sawston, Cambridgeshire, in autumn 1969 after a time spent on the Monach Islands off the Northwest coast of Scotland.

While in Sawston, Dreda became involved with Newfoundland dogs, owning Attimore Minches, whom she successfully campaigned in the show ring, culminating in taking best of Breed at Crufts for three successive years.

Dreda Randall had a love of horses her whole life and set up the Monach Riding School at Hilton where she passed on her love and knowledge. (Image: Randall family)

She owned Newfoundlands throughout her life, breeding several litters of puppies and becoming an open show judge, including judging the club's centenary open show in 1986.

Influenced by her Labrador, Sheba, Dreda, also helped establish a dog training club in Sawston, something she repeated when the family, dogs and William moved to Coleraine in Northern Ireland.

Here she also increased her riding and horse knowledge on the hunting field and taught the children of friends how to ride on William.

Leaving Coleraine in 1973, the family, now including daughter Emily, moved to a smallholding in Attleborough, Norfolk.

Dreda Randall was judge for some of the country's top animal championships. (Image: Randall family)

They lived in a rented cottage whilst they had a house built, and Dreda built all the stables and sheds that she needed for the growing animal family.

Much of the timber used was reclaimed, an example of her ethos on life.

William was joined by more ponies, breeding rabbits and guinea pigs for pet sales, keeping poultry for eggs and goats for milk.

It was from here that the registered Monach Herd of pedigree dairy goats started. Roland and Dreda also became members of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

In 1977, Roland was offered one of the first male fellowships at Girton College, Cambridge, until then a female-only student and staff College.

The family moved to Hilton, another derelict house on a smallholding that at the time was 1.5 acres of scrubland with a few old piggeries.

Living on site in a large touring caravan, St Francis Toft came into being with Dreda again building stables, fencing paddocks, hand-mixing the concrete to make the building floors and central yard.

The family expanded with the arrival of the second daughter, Elinor.

Family bereavements in the early 1980s provided the opportunity to acquire more land and the cottage next door.

The extra land led to an increase in the farming activities, with the addition of Shetland sheep, British White Cattle, Berkshire pigs and several rare breeds of poultry.

All of which were shown to a high standard, often winning breed championships and the poultry taking supreme titles at the national shows for several years.

At this time, Dreda began breeding and working Border Collies to give a helping hand with the family's sheep.

Pygmy goats joined the dairy goats, and Dreda's judging commitments increased as she became a recognised judge not only for dogs, but also for pygmy, dairy and rare breed goats and sheep.

Her ability to recognise quality across all types of animals was highlighted when she won the stock judging competition at the Royal Show in the early 1990s.

Dreda was also involved in the organisation of many shows, including the RBST National Autumn show and was a senior steward at the East of England Agricultural show for several years.

Dreda started teaching children riding and horse care on an informal basis with William before the move to Canada and continued this when in Ireland, Attleborough and Hilton.

As Emily showed an interest in the horses and ponies through pony club and competing, more native ponies joined the farm and became the foundation of the formal licensed riding school after Emily returned from studying rural land management in 1992 and joined the farm on a full-time basis.

This coincided with the opportunity to expand the farm further with the addition of another 70 acres of land directly behind the existing plot.

This land was arable when the family bought it, and many hours were spent fencing, planting hedgerows and creating the conservation-based wildlife-friendly farm that is here today.

She leaves family and friends with a wealth of countryside knowledge and skills, in addition to her extensive animal care experience.

The need for a horse that was larger than the Fells and Dales already on site resulted in the arrival of a Suffolk Punch, and Dreda was integral to the early days of ridden heavy horse classes, giving demonstrations of their abilities and versatility at many shows.

The farm has further expanded when Elinor married Warren in 2001, and they established themselves on family land near Colchester, a greenfield site.

Dreda was instrumental in the design, planning, and building of that site, including a licensed dairy and nationally recognised care farm supporting children and adults with special educational needs and trauma recovery.

Dreda became involved with Caspian horses through a close friend, and the miniature horses became important members of the stables team.

The horses were also shown and competed nationally.

Dreda served on the council of the Caspian Horse Society and was incredibly proud that four of her horses were selected to be part of the Caspian horse display at the Horse of the Year show in 2017.

A logistical exercise that embraced all of Dreda’s skills with transport, costumes, show preparation and keeping a team of eight humans, four of whom were young children, in check.

In recent years, it is the herd of Monach dairy goats that became the focus of the farm’s off site activities.

With a high health status, maintained for over 40 years, and a focus on production in combination with conformation and nutrition, the herd has exported breeding stock internationally to over 40 countries, as well as the foundation stock for many commercial herds in the UK.

Across four breeds, the Monach herd has bred more than 15 breed champions. The Monach herd also holds the record for the highest number of successive generations gaining production awards, and in recent weeks has been recognised as being the most successful herd ever recorded with these awards.

Dreda is survived by her husband Roland, daughters Emily and Elinor, son–in–law Warren, and three grandchildren Xabien, Ariajana and Marleia, as well as the legacy and future of Monach Farm.