Gloucester Old Spots were traditionally known as the Orchard or Cottage Pig because they were often reared in gardens and on smallholdings. 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 amongst the orchards 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 breeding pigs have some pens in our barn with access to a large outdoor area.  Once the piglets have been weaned they are moved down to one of our outdoor pens where as well as having an ark filled with straw for shelter they also have lots of shrubs and plants to route around in.  Our pigs enjoy being outdoors and are intelligent, sociable animals with very clean habits. When the weather is hot, we ensure that all the pens have a wallow where they roll around in the mud which they use as a sun screen.  They are very good at digging using their immensely strong snouts as ploughs and it is amazing to see how quickly they can dig a hole or wallow. They love having visitors and if children run alongside their pens they race with them along the fence line.

We have a small herd of rare breed pedigree Gloucester Old Spot pigs: three adult breeding sows; Pip, Dottie and Amy and a very friendly boar who we bought at the age of eight weeks called Squeak.  He loves being scratched and if you scratch him in the right place he rolls onto the floor.

As well as being fed GM and antibiotic free feed, they also enjoy a variety of other food including lots of apples which have been grown from our small orchard that we planted when we first purchased the farm.  These are very heavily supplemented by the local villagers who bring down to the farm all their windfalls which the pigs (and the cattle) thourghly enjoy.

The pigs are really friendly and love helping me to muck out which can turn out tobe a hinderence instead of help, especially when they consider the wheelbarrow to be something that should either be climbed into, I still cannot work out to this day how Pip managed to actually get into the wheelbarrow, but she did and the wheelbarrow has never been the same since!  Or they consider the wheelbarrow is something that they need to scratch themselves against and always manage to knock it and its contents over.

Squeak also has a habit of waiting until I'm ready to leave through the gate and then to stand right next to it and refuse to move.  The piglets also prove to be very helpful if you are in their pen and think nothing of trying to eat any spades or brushes that you are using.  They also love trying to work out if any of your clothes or shoes are edible and we have been known to have two or three piglets trying to eat my trousers at the same time.  All of the pigs and piglets love having a fuss made of them and think that you are only there to scratch them.

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