The Pink Pig

Butchers who trade on the provenance of the Tamworth traditional pig breed may like to thank the Wheatley-Hubbard family who are credited with saving it from extinction. Ann Wheatley-Hubbard took up farming in Warwickshire in 1943 at the age of 19, on the death of her father. In 1962 she moved the farm, including all the livestock, to Boyton in Wiltshire. This was the time when the Tamworths were at their lowest, and if she had not continued to keep them the breed would probably not exist today.

Today the Berkswell herd of Tamworths is still thriving and the speciality of Caroline's Boyton Farm shop. They are being bred and fed in an area once famous for its pigs and bacon. The town of Trowbridge is near by and gave its name to a type of pig housing. Calne is not far way where companies such as Harris and Bowyers were central to the bacon trade producing the Wiltshire cure bacon.

The Wheatley Hubbards could also be credited as a pioneer of farm shops for over 20 years ago they began to sell Tamworth pork from the back door of the farm. The pigs were simply cut into primal cuts and wrapped.

"Word of mouth built the trade," remembers Caroline," but then the customers became more selective not wanting, for example, the bellies so we started making sausages and having the pork cured for bacon and gammons .However, family commitments and hygiene regulations saw the end to the enterprise at that time.

Five years ago, with the then traditional farming looking pretty negative, they decided to reinstate the business but this time converting the farm's redundant office into a butchers shop. Foot and Mouth hit six months later and Caroline realised the shop was a way of saving her valuable herd which was now cut off from pedigree sales and livestock markets closed during the epidemic.

The family can trace Tamworth breeding back to the "Jemima" the foundation sow of the Berkswell herd in the 1920s started by great grandfather Josiah. The Tamworth is one of the most ancient, if not oldest, of British breeds descended from the Red Barbadan or Axford itself a descendant of Sus scrofa the European wild boar. The breed's long snout is a mark of the wild pig and perfect for foraging scrub and uncultivated land. The breed's slower maturity leads to superior flavour and Caroline has research papers from Bristol University to confirm this.

Mail order and a website have been added to the marketing mix as has beef and lamb. The Wheatley-Hubbards had a few Hereford cross Friesian bullocks from the dairy herd which were grazing on the permanent pasture of the downlands in this picturesque Wylye valley by the river Wylye They were in danger of getting too old, for the thirty month rule and too fat and so were slaughtered for the shop. The success of this beef led to a more measured approach and selection of breeding stock and so now the picturesque conservation pastures are adorned with 50 pedigree orange red Sussex cows crossed with a Hereford bull.

"The choice of breed and cross breeding is to produce calves which grow slowly mostly on grass in the traditional way," says Caroline.

The ewes are Suffolk cross Mules and the rams are Hampshire Down. Lambs graze the water meadows which are also uncultivated and part of the protected ancient fields. Like the cattle and pigs, slow growth rate is the key for mature meat with good flavour. This is further enhanced by marketing mostly hoggets so the meat is at its peak and there is a reasonable meat yield...

Still a problem is the lack of skilled butchery staff. At the start, a local school teacher Mark Uffindell whose previous experience included working alas a shepherd and then as a butcher cut up meat in the evenings. Now 19-year-old Daniel Packer is the full-time butcher and improving his skills through NVQ training with MEAT based in Ipswich. Daniel learned basic butchery from Bob Shuckford now retired but he was introduced to the pork trade at the age of six at school when Caroline came to demonstrate sausage making.

The shop is open Wednesday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm and Saturday 10 to 1pm. Caroline also sells through farmers markets at Salisbury, Shaftesbury, Bradford upon Avon, Frome and Warminster and this trade has expanded to nearly overtake the shop volume. However the shop is to be expanded and moved from the farm to redundant pig housing nearer the centre of the village. The new shop will be known as the Ginger Piggery taking its name from the copper coloured skin and hair of the Tamworths that were housed there.

But more than a shop, it is to be an education centre with meeting room for farm tours, demonstrations, school visits and for hire to local groups. Five artisan workshops will be available to rent to artists who must be local. A Victorian straddle barn in the centre of the courtyard of the old pig unit will be made into a gallery for art exhibitions.

This project is one way of helping to sustain a thriving rural community by the Wheatley Hubbards who recognise their duty as farmers of several generations to keep not only valuable pedigree breeding alive but also a thriving rural community.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---