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Pig in the Post

A presentation to the Royal Philatelic Society London by Colin Mount FBSAP

Thursday 15th December 2005

The Pig to many people is a rather lowly and unsociable animal but one should study them to discover their many interesting and desirable ways.

This is a brief look at the humble pig, its life in the wild, how it has been hunted and how the various links with man have been established and have continued over the centuries.

The pig is a remarkable animal, possibly the brightest of all the domestic animals and throughout our heritage it has played many important roles and has often been the symbol of good health, good wealth and good luck in love.

The pig is not just a rasher of bacon or a pork chop on our plate, it gives us some of the finest leather and its bristles give us some of the finest brushes, everything from the pig is useful except its squeal.

The Pig was originally a wild animal that was hunted by man for both food and sport and the ferocity of the wild boar during a chase has been chronicled in Celtic and Scandinavian tales, and the Anglo-Saxons relished the challenge of one of the most courageous activities known to man. The wild boar has very muscular shoulders for crashing through the undergrowth in the forests where he lives.

The forests of Europe were populated by a breed of pig that bore little resemblance to the pig of today; it was fat, short with very little ham or lean meat. The improved pig is long, lean with light shoulders and very meaty hams.

It was during the 19th century that wild pigs were crossed with more docile breeds introduced from South East Asia and this was the start of the improved breeds of today.

Whilst the wild pig would often fight to the death to retain territory it is a very shy animal and only becomes aggressive when protecting its young or when hunted.

Because of its reputation of being strong and tough the Belgium Ardense Jagers uses a wild boar as its regiment symbol.

Throughout history the wild boar has been hunted by man, in fact in Classical times the fourth labour of Hurcules was to capture the Erymanthian Boar.

Dogs were often used to flush out the wild boar and they would be chased on horseback and killed with a spear but later this was replaced by the gun.

Wild boar was still quite common in Britain until the fifteenth century when indiscriminate hunting caused it to become extinct. Many places such as North Boarhunt in Hampshire and Wildboarclough in the Peak District were famous for boar hunting.

Hunting combined with the shrinking of our forests contributed to the demise of the wild boar in Britain and its interesting to note that in the early 1600,s the Earl of Essex killed the last wild boar in the County of Essex and in 1617 James I killed the last wild boar in the Royal Park at Windsor. In 1620 Charles I obtained a pair of wild pigs and set them free in the New Forest in Hampshire, but although they bred successfully they were again hunted to extinction.

During Truffle Hunting pigs are used to seek out this prized fungus and some truffle hunters from the Perigord region of France have reported pigs being able to sniff out a truffle from 6 metres (20 feet). Pigs are now being used with great affect by the police to sniff out drugs.

The ring in the pigs nose started in the Middle Ages when swineherds were permitted to graze their pigs on Royal forestland from Midsummer Day to the 15th January. And during this time they soon realised just what damage a pig could do to young trees by their rooting. Pig ringing; to stop pigs uprooting plants became law with very stiff penalties for offenders.

Melrose Abbey in Roxburgh was built in 1450 and features a pig gargoyle on the South wall of nave. The pig has bagpipes around its neck.

The Anti-Royalist league, which was possibly of Scottish origin featured small pigs cut out from a Id red stamp. The Anti-Royalist league was a private organisation that agitated for the removal of the British Monarchy.

The wonderful story of the Dunmow Flitch with a most unusual postcard of the trial.

The 35th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the stamp shows a Hungarian Worker with a red flag which depicts a red sow.

The legend of St. Brannock, so the story goes Brannock brought Christianity to Braunton in Devon sometime in the 11th century and set about building a church but everytime a stone was laid it was moved during the night and this was thought to be the work of the devil. One night Brannock was instructed in a dream to build the church where he found a sow suckling her litter, this he did and the church still stands on the sight and is still used by the community of Braunton. One of the bosses in the roof shows a sow suckling its litter and is believed to date from the 12th Century.

During and after the First World War, money in Germany, especially small change, was in short supply owing to paper and metal being used in the war effort. Because of this the state bank agreed to allow towns and villages to issue their own emergency money. This was known as Wotgeld' the word 'Not' means emergency or necessity and 'Geld' means money.

Proof cheques showing a wild boars head came from the archives of Perkins BACON circa 1860 to 1870.

Britain are without doubt the world leaders when it comes to pig genetics, many of our rare breeds of pig have had a major influence on the genetically improved pig of today. The Large White and Landrace are possibly the most common breeds used in any pig breeding company programme, but some of our breeds, which are now only seen on rare breed farms, have had an influence over the years.

The Pig Improvement Company was started by a group of 5 farmers in 1962 and has become possibly the most important breeding company in the world. They basically went to CAMbridge University for health advice and to EdinBOROUGH University for genetic improvement advice. They used selected Large White and Landrace breeds to produce the CAMBOROUGH breeding gilt which is sold in virtually every country in the world, yes even stock has been exported to Denmark and comes back as Danish bacon.

The modern pig breeding business demands the very highest standards of breeding, housing, feeding, health and marketing. Gone are the days when a bucket of pig swill was the done thing, pigs are now fed very sophisticated diets to produce the maximum amount of lean meat in the shortest possible time. Bacon pigs used to take anything up to a year to mature, they now finish in around 5months.

Genetic improvement in the old days was carried out by either a 'Mobile' boar or sows were taken to a boar stud, but as the industry grew, pig health became a major problem and artificial insemination was introduced this enabled many producers to use the same boar line thus giving a more consistent product in the market place.

Swine Fever (known as Hog Cholera in the USA) became a major problem but with the introduction of vaccination programmes and pig movement licences, which were introduced in 1908, after some years the disease was eradicated in the UK but remains a notifiable list.

When it comes to marketing pigs, early in the nineteen hundreds it was common to see pigs being walked to market with a piece of strong rope tied around its back leg but today most pigs are sold through contract schemes.

In other parts of the world pigs are still sold in markets but some form of pig duty often has to be paid. The Union Stock Yards in Chicago issued a postcard showing pigs being dispatched on a revolving hog wheel, quite bizarre.

The Danish Bacon Company through very good advertising is thought to be the only major company selling bacon in this country, but this is not the case.

The Harris Bacon Company have been marketing bacon in this country since around 1850, more recently under the Crown Bacon label. John Harris opened a pork butchers in the village of Caine in Wiltshire in 1770 and went on to supply shops in the surrounding villages and towns and even into London. A flourishing trade in Irish pigs enabled Harris to buy at reasonable prices, the pigs were shipped into Bristol and herded down to London to be sold at Smithfield, Caine was chosen as one of the feeding and resting stations so Harris provided the facilities and thus was able to buy plenty of good quality pigs.

But the potato famine in 1847 put a stop to the pig trade and so a great-grandson of Harris went to America to investigate the possibility of importing pigs but found this to be totally impractical but came back with the knowledge of how to build an ice house, this enabled him to cure bacon all the year round This was the start of the Harris Bacon Company and the rest is history. The Harris Company went on to take over a number of smaller bacon companies "Royal Wilts" and "Spears" being just two.

Virtually all country towns had its own butcher but they are fast becoming a thing of the past with around 88% of all pork, bacon, ham and sausages being sold through the dreaded supermarket.

Pig meat in all its aspects is very popular and is eaten virtually in every country in the world but it was the Chinese that first domesticated the pig and it was the Chinese that discovered the delights of roast pork.

Pig meat is promoted in a number of ways, the Post Office issued a booklet promoting bacon and pig products in 1953 and 1969. Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and Cumberland Pork Sausages and Palethorps Pork Sausages all have interesting stories. The Hog Roast is another area that has created opportunities to sell pig meat.

An interesting note from the Divisional Superintendent's Office of the Great Western Railway dated 1925 regarding the Sausages and Bacon being sent by rail.

The pig has featured in many aspects of art but the earliest known picture of a pig is believed to have been painted 40,000 years ago in a cave in Altamira in Spain.

The Pig is not generally featured on cards for Spring or Easter this is usually left to the Chick or Easter egg.

Christmas is a different story, you have Boars Head Carols, Bermudian 'Hogge' money (hogmany) and an array of cards depicting, good luck, good wealth and good health.

The pig features often in war propaganda, General Beauregard in the American Civil War was often mentioned as Boar-egard and a pig was used on propaganda material and naturally one should mention the Boer War.

It is interesting to note that pigs were often kept on board war ships to supply fresh meat and this was the case with the Dresdon when it was sunk off the coast of South America on March 15th 1915. The pig was brought back as a mascot and nicknamed Tirpitz' and lived on Whale Island near Portsmouth until it died, it was then mounted and is still in the Imperial War Museum in London.

A very unusual American Anti-German Propaganda card depicting Hitler as a pig and an interesting item of Dutch propaganda material showing the pig.

The pig features in many aspects of advertising obviously pigmeat predominates but two items from Russia one exalting pig leather products, the other pig bristles.

Many a Pigtail has been told over the years and the pig features on many stamps with children's stories but you do not expect to see a pig on a Valentine card.

An interesting minature sheet showing some Red Hot Porkers I! !! And is this the future for man and the pig? ... perhaps.

And just to put the seal on the afternoon, two interesting seals dated 1812 and 1839 showing a boar's head.

That's all Folks!
Thank you for coming
Have a great Christmas and
A safe journey home...

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