The North Down herd of Gloucester Old Spot Pigs

The North Down Herd of Gloucester Old Spot Pigs

We have a herd of rare breed pedigree Gloucester Old Spot pigs: nine adult breeding sows; Elvira, Esther, Esmeralda, Ella, Prudence, Persephone, Elsie, Petronella and Portia as well as a handsome, happy-go-lucky senior boar called George and a friendly younger boar named Pedro. Our two original sows, Evadne and Pris, are now retired grand old ladies of leisure. We were delighted to announce the patter of tiny trotters again with the arrival of the first litter of this year on 21 February. Prudence produced seven piglets who did the usual eating and sleeping a lot and scuffling about in a higgledy-piggledy heap of spots, ears and tails. Three more litters were born by the spring of 2008, and several more are due later in the year.

Gloucester Old Spots were traditionally known as the Orchard or Cottage Pig because they were often reared in gardens and on small holdings. They are characterised by their large black spots and lop ears which flop forward covering their eyes. Folklore claims the large black spots are bruises caused by the apples falling onto them as they foraged the orchard floors for food. This rare breed nearly died out in the 1950s. Even today there are only about 700 breeding Gloucester Old Spot sows in the country.

Our pigs enjoy being outdoors and are intelligent, sociable animals with very clean habits. In hot weather we make them a wallow so that they can roll in the mud and use it as a sun screen. In the winter they spend more time asleep and make a cosy nest from straw in their arks. They are very good at digging using their immensely strong snouts as ploughs. One summer I found them excavating a dry stone wall between the orchard and my garden, hurling rocks around like beach balls. I deterred them from this exciting new game by nailing up a new strand of wire and they promptly made off with my bale of wire and my bucket of tools, carrying them away in their mouths by the handles. Try fencing when a pig is around and she will steal your hammer.

We sometimes have breeding stock for sale so please enquire.