Woodlands Farm

The Lincolnshire Curly Coat Pig which became extinct in 1972 was once widely kept as a cottager’s pig throughout Lincolnshire. Noted for its size and liking for apples it produced pork of a high fat content which in the post war years fell out of fashion.

After the first world war a number of Lincolnshire Curly Coats had been exported to Austria and the Balkans to increase the stock of the native Mangalitza (also known as Woolly pigs). There they were absorbed into the Mangalitza breeding herd. The pigs kept at Woodlands, are descended from these Mangalitza/Lincolnshire Curly Coat crosses. Very few Mangalitzas now remain and there are fewer than 100 of them in the British Isles. They are listed as an endangered species.

The Woodlands Herd

The Woodlands herd was started in 2008 with the purchase of two pedigree Mangalitza curly coat pigs (pet names, Gavin and Stacey) from the Wainlee herd in Staffordshire. The Woodlands pigs are white or blond, white being the colour of the original Lincolnshire Curly Coat. For interest, Mangalitzas may also be ginger or swallow bellied ie black with a white underbelly.

It’s hoped the progeny from these two pigs will help re-establish the curly coat as a heritage breed in Lincolnshire and also provide pork for local sales. Worthy of note is that In the mid nineteenth century the ‘charcuterie’ of the Mangalitza was in such high demand that they were traded on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Watch this space!...

We’re grateful to Brian Codling of Rectory Reserve near Horncastle (www.rectoryreserve.co.uk for helping to make this initiative possible, as well as of Tony York of Pig Paradise (www.pigparadise.com) who successfully imported a small number of Mangalotzas to England in 2006.