The Cumberland Pig

During the first half of the twentieth century, the Cumberland Pig was immensely popular with local farmers. Its floppy ears, flat face and smooth silky coat distinguished it from other, lesser breeds. It was a source of the legendary Cumberland Ham and provided the distinctive flavour to Cumberland Sausage.

Almost all the farms would keep at least one pig. Slaughtered at the ‘back-end’ of the year, it would provide the farmer’s own family with a supply of good tasty ham and bacon through the winter. There might even be enough left to send a few sides of bacon to the local market!

Eamont Peter Pan

Bred by Mrs Carleton Couper, Carleton Hall, Penrith.
First Prize Winner at Royal Lancashire Show, Lancaster Show, Brampton Show, Cockermouth Show and awarded The Silver Challenge Cup for Best Cumberland Pig

The county’s biggest pig farms were around Carlisle, Penrith and along the Eden Valley but Kirkbride was also an important area for pig farming. Thomas Wills of Angerton House there was a well-known breeder.

In 1915, he attended a meeting of farmers in the King’s Arms Inn at Wigton. The meeting was convened by Mr T. B. Schofield, the government’s local livestock officer and Mr Steel, the Wigton vet. Mr Schofield told the meeting that his department were spending hundreds of pounds each year buying boars. These were then made available to small farmers for breeding purposes. However, the Cumberland Pig did not qualify for the scheme although the farmers were anxious to use it. The problem was that there was no ‘Pedigree System’ and so the breed was not officially recognised.

Gate Mary Bred by Mrs H.M. Boyns, Hatton Lodge, Soulby, Kirkby Stephen.Second Prize Winner at Yorkshire Agricultural Show.

The meeting resolved to form a Cumberland Pig Breeders Association and to establish a ‘Herd Book’ which would register all pure-bred Cumberlands and so make them eligible for the government’s breeding programme.

The farmers present at the meeting pledged £75 to get things going and appointed a council to oversee operations. Over the next few years, more than one hundred farms signed up for the Herd Book.

Tom Wills of Angerton House served as a council member for the new association along with his neighbour Joseph Robinson of Wampool Farm. J. Carr of Whitrigg House, The Graham brothers of Whitriglees and Greenspot, and J. Mark of Angerton were also registered breeders. The Lowthers, Liddles, Nichols and Robinsons were other families from Kirkbride who appeared regularly in the Herd Book.

From the 1929 Herd Book

John Routledge of Old Silloth Farm was a very successful breeder of Cumberland Pigs. In 1921, he showed a boar which won the Breeders’ Association Show at Penrith and was then sold for 90 guineas. In 1923, he sold a champion sow for 81 guineas. His best breeding sow was ‘Seabreeze of Old Silloth’ whose litter of eleven six-month old piglets was sold for 320 guineas. John was vice-chairman of the Holm Cultram Agricultural Society.

He died in January 1924 when he chocked, ironically on a piece of pork, while dining with friends at the Criffel Hotel. His widow, Margaret, continued to breed the pigs for many more years.

Janet II
Bred by Mrs Carleton Couper, Carleton Hall, Penrith.
Second Prize Winner at Royal Lancashire Show.

SOME OTHER LOCAL FARMERS WHO BRED CUMBERLAND PIGS.

T J Armstrong of Doucie Farm, Calvo.

P R Foster of Allonby

Thomas Hodgson of Mawbray Farm

J Hornsby of Holme Lea, Silloth

W Penrice of Park House, Silloth

John Slack, Holme Low, Silloth

A sad end to the story . . .

In 1955, the government’s Advisory Committee on Pig Production produced a report which indicated that housewives were then demanding a leaner type of meat. They recommended that farmers should concentrate on only three breeds: the Large White, the Welsh and the Landrace. The breeding stock of the Cumberland began to decline and, even before the report was published, there were only three breeding boars registered in the county.

The last individual, a sow belonging to a Mr Thirwell of Bothel Craggs died in 1960 and the breed became extinct.

In 2008, a Penrith animal conservation centre "recreated" the Cumberland pig based on DNA analysis and selective breeding. Farmers who had worked with the last surviving originals agreed that the new pig was a good match in appearance. After years of selective breeding, a sow was born with a 99.6% DNA match for the Cumberland. However, it proved infertile.

Sources:
Cumberland News & Wigton Advertiser, 16/10/1915
Wigton Advertiser 26/1/1924
Cumberland Pig Herd Books. (Local Collection, Carlisle Library)
Wikipedia