Our pigs roam freely in the beech and oak copses and deciduous woods around our farm at Stillingfleet near York.

We love our pigs and we are very keen to rear them in the traditional way. The Gloucester Old Spots were known as ‘Orchard Pigs’ and were traditionally reared in orchards on a diet of whey from cheese making and orchard apples. We began our pig enterprise in March 2006.

Stillingfleet House is a ring farm bounded on one side by Stillingfleet Beck and the River Ouse on the other side and is only five miles south of York. We are very lucky to have copses and woodland around the farm for our pigs to root around in.

Did you know that Gloucester Old Spot pigs are the oldest spotted pedigree breed in the world?

The Old spots pigs are characterised by their distinctive colour and lop ears. They are docile and make excellent mothers.  As well as eating the acorns they find in our oak copses our Old spots love apple and we rear all our pigs on a ‘five a day’ fruit and vegetable diet and spring water from the farm.

Our pigs

The two most important pigs in our herd are the breeding sows Dorothea and Doris. Dorothea is a pedigree Old Spot and Doris is an Oxford Sandy and Black and Old spot cross.

We really believe that the way we rear our pigs and the diet we feed them produces the very best flavoured and succulent ‘old fashioned’ style pork and assures the welfare of our herd.

 Hilary Swinglehurst