Pigs

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Gloucester Old Spot Large Black Ossabaw Island Hog

Probably one of the best known of all British rare breed pigs, it originally came from the Severn River valleys in Gloucestershire living mainly on a diet of the whey from the Gloucestershire cheeses and apples from the very prolific orchards in the area.

A wonderful pig that owes much of its success and survival to George Stlyes who in some circles is affectionately known as the "Grandfather of the Breed." Thanks to his passion and interest the breed survived and flourished at a time when without such support we might have found ourselves with far fewer blood lines.

A good dual purpose pig that is both hardy and docile it is very much a 'smallholders' pig and was know in its early days as the 'orchard' pig. Lop eared with good mothering qualities the Gloucestershire Old Spots attraction to first time pig keepers can be well understood.

Because of the difficulties of selling spotted and coloured pigs to butchers (harder work cleaning them with claims that the customer did not want such pigs!) there was a tendency to breed pigs with as few spots as possible. Luckily a trend now (1999) being reversed.

Large Black

Many stories surround the arrival of these wonderful long, lop eared pigs on England's shores.

Historically, an all black lop eared pig was not known in this country until some time after the arrival of Siamese and Neopolitan breeds.

There are many tales and stories that surround the possible way in which these pigs arrived in Enland and one such story does seem to have some credibility when you return to the fact that the black pigs were mainly found in the south and south east of Britain. It is said that when Chinese trading boats were making the long and tortuous journey to England they would always ensure that they had plenty of livestock on board to feed the crew, preventing scurvy; they could never be certain how long the journey would take or how long they would be at sea.

On this particular occasion it is said that two Chinese trading vessels made very good time with both landings - the first in Plymouth and the other in London. A large number of surplus black pigs were supposedly unloaded at both places. The farmers in both East Anglia and Cornwall took a liking to them with the result that in the fullness of time the Large Black of today emerged.

It is certainly ture that the big black pig bred in the south west became very popular abroad and is still know as the 'Cornish Black' in many parts of the world. It is also true that black and black pigs with a white saddle were found all around London. There is, however, no way in which one can prove the authenticity of the story, as nice as it is.

With its fantastic lop ears it is often know as the 'elephant pig' because of the similartiy the newly born piglets have to a very small black elelphant. Viewed from behind, after just being born, their huge ears and little straight tail certainly make one think of a baby elephant.

In the early 19th century they were described as being one of the largest of all Enlgish pigs with very big heads and ears that were so long that they could hardly see which way they were going. This is still very much the situation even today.

This is, without any doubt, one of the more graceful, elegant members of the pig family.

Ossabaw Island Hog

The accepted theory is the Spanish left the Ossabaws on their little island off the coast of Georgia some 400 years ago. Since that time, like all good pigs, they have truly adapted to their environment. In the wild, Ossabaws are very small pigs, the sows only getting to about 100 lbs when they are pregnant. When domesticated, however, their size at least doubles.

It is said that there are only about 200 Ossaboaws on the mainland of the United States, descendants of the pigs brought from their island in the 1970s. They are no longer allowed to leave the island, however. For that reason, they are, of course considered something of a rarity. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy lists them as 'critical' on their conservation priority list, and they are the only feral pig breed on that list.

Ossabaws are very good foragers and very lively. Full of energy and curioustiy, the never stop moving. Their feral nature, however, makes them somewhat suspicious and standoffish. Despite their continual ambulation, these little pigs have a large amount of back fat and could be the closest thing to a lard pig that we have left in this country.