Essex pig

History

The Essex pig likely traces its roots back to selective breeding of local wild pigs in the English county of Essex. Originally a small, coarse black-and-white breed, it was valued by smallholders for being low-maintenance and inexpensive to feed. This early version, known as the Old Essex, was deliberately improved in the mid-1800s through crossbreeding with imported pigs. During a trip to Italy in the early 19th century, Charles Western, 1st Baron Western, acquired Neapolitan pigs to breed with his Essex sows. One of his tenants, Fisher Hobbs, then crossed the resulting Neapolitan-Essex boars with his own coarse Essex sows, creating the Improved Essex. In 1840, a boar and sow bred by Hobbs each won first prize in their class at the Royal Agricultural Society’s second show in Cambridge.

The Essex pig remained a local favorite into the mid-1950s, even increasing in numbers during and right after World War II thanks to its hardiness and skill at foraging for food. In 1954, 488 Essex boars—about 2% of all British boars—were still licensed, and 3,716 sows were registered. The breed’s fortunes shifted dramatically after a 1955 report from the Advisory Committee on the Development of Pig Production in the United Kingdom, led by Sir Harold Howitt. The report, released after wartime rationing ended, warned that British pig farms were ill-equipped to compete with European and Scandinavian producers, especially those in Denmark. It blamed the UK’s many local breeds for holding back progress and recommended focusing on just three: the Welsh, the Landrace, and the Large White. As a result, the Essex pig entered a steep decline.