The Essex is a breed of
domestic pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...
originating in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
Characteristics
The Essex, in its traditional form, was a smallish pig with 'pricked' ears and a black ground colour, with a broad band of white 'sheeting' across the shoulders.
History
![Illustrirte Zeitung (1843) 12 182 7 Essex-Eber des Herrn Hopp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Illustrirte_Zeitung_%281843%29_12_182_7_Essex-Eber_des_Herrn_Hopp.PNG)
Like other old British pig breeds, the ancestor of the Essex may have originated in the county of the same name from selective breeding of local wild pigs. It was originally a smallish, "coarse" black-and-white pig that was noted for being easy to keep and cheap to feed, qualities that ensured its popularity with
smallholders. The Old Essex, as it came to be known, was deliberately "improved" in the mid 19th century by crossing it with imported pigs.
[Wiseman, J. ''The pig: a British history'', Duckworth, 2000, p.45] In the early nineteenth century, while travelling in Italy,
Charles Western, 1st Baron Western
Charles Callis Western, 1st Baron Western (9 August 1767 – 4 November 1844), was a British landowner and Whig politician. He sat in the House of Commons for over forty years before his elevation to the peerage in 1833.
Background and educatio ...
obtained
Neapolitan pigs to cross with his Essex sows. One of his tenants, Fisher Hobbs, bred the resulting Neapolitan-Essex boars with his "coarse" Essex sows and established the Improved Essex. In 1840 an Improved Essex boar and sow, both bred by Hobbs, each took first prize in its class at the second show of the
Royal Agricultural Society at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
The Essex pig remained locally popular until as recently as the mid-1950s, and had actually increased in numbers during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and immediately afterwards, based on its reputation for hardiness and its ability to feed itself by foraging.
[The Decline of Traditional Breeds]
British Pig Association. Archived 27 February 2012. In 1954, 488 Essex boars (2% of the total British stock) were still licensed, and 3,716 sows registered.
The position of the Essex breed changed markedly after the publication of a 1955 report by the Advisory Committee on the Development of Pig Production in the United Kingdom, chaired by Sir
Harold Howitt.
[''Development of pig production in the United Kingdom: report of the Advisory Committee on Development of Pig Production in the United Kingdom'', HMSO, 1955] The report, issued after the end of wartime rationing, expressed concern that the UK's pig farms were poorly placed to compete with European and Scandinavian pork and bacon producers, particularly those of
Denmark
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, and identified that the wide variety of local breeds still used in the UK hampered development. It was therefore recommended that pig farmers concentrate on three breeds: the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
, the
Landrace, and the
Large White
''Pieris brassicae'', the large white, also called cabbage butterfly, cabbage white, cabbage moth (erroneously), or in India the large cabbage white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is a close relative of the small white, ''Pieris ra ...
, and as a result the Essex pig went into a steep decline.
While the breed societies of the
Wessex (another breed featuring a black ground colour and white shoulder markings, although with a different origin) and Essex pigs had amalgamated as early as 1918, the formal end of the Essex pig came in 1967, when the stud books were also amalgamated with the intention of merging the two breeds into the
British Saddleback. This was intended to improve the breed's characteristics, produce
hybrid vigour
Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring. An offspring is heterotic if its traits are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of ...
, and prevent inbreeding in the remaining small herds. For many years the Essex pig was considered to have become
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
in 1967, although it was thought a few pure-bred individuals might survive on small farms.
Re-creation of the breed
Later research showed that one farmer, John Croshaw, had refused to amalgamate his herd of Essex pigs (the "Glascote Herd"), which retained a pure Essex bloodline despite being officially registered as British Saddlebacks: Croshaw had carefully managed his stock to avoid inbreeding.
[Essex Pig Society]
Archived January 2010.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Essex
Pig breeds originating in England