Meat · Breed · Short entry
Large Black
A big, all-black English pig from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, with long lop ears that fall forward over its face. Its dark skin resists sunburn, so it suits outdoor and woodland keeping. Once among the most numerous British breeds, it became rare after the Second World War; the Rare Breeds Survival Trust counted 288 breeding females in 2024.
From the Lop-Eared Black to a rare breed
Accounts of the breed's origin are told rather than documented. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust repeats the story that in the eighteenth century two boatloads of black pigs from China landed in Cornwall and East Anglia and were bred with local pigs, and also links the breed to the Old English Hog of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Livestock Conservancy says it was first known as the Lop-Eared Black and was selected for size and for efficient production on pasture.
By the early twentieth century it was widely kept and often crossed with Large Whites and Middle Whites for pork and bacon. The RBST says it had been exported to more than 30 countries by 1935, and that in 1949 its breed society merged with the National Pig Breeders Association, now the British Pig Association. The move to intensive indoor production after the war left outdoor breeds behind, and when the RBST was formed in 1973 the Large Black was listed as rare.
How it connects
Breed
- similar Gloucestershire Old Spots
- related Berkshire
