Pig Fact 4

BAKEWELL'S PIG

Named after Robert Bakewell, who became famous for his experiments in pig breeding, this is one of the earliest recorded attempts to produce an 'improved' pig. Bakewell crossed the dark chestnut with a rusty red, then brought in a celebrated black boar, to sire a pig of mixed colouring. This pig may have been the source of the old-fashioned 'plum pudding' type once common in Leicestershire.

The Bakewell was described by John M. Wilson, as having 'its belly nearly touching the ground and its eyes and snout looking as if they were almost absorbed into the body.'

"The pig has about him a natural, pleasant, bail-fellow well-met air, devoid of servility or insolence, which endears him to the English sensibility." ~W.H. Hudson, naturalist