Descended from the old indigenous species the European wild boar, which is where the red colouring comes from. The Tamworth is recognised as the purest British breed of pig and is regarded as being of a rather primitive type, being a very distinctive pig with long legs, prick ears with a pure red or ginger coat. This however has not always been the case. Around 1800 it was said to be much smaller with shorter legs and ears that were far less prominent. As far as colour was concerned it was described as "spotted red and brown".

The Middle White traces its roots to the 1852 Keighley Agricultural Show in West Yorkshire where Joseph Tuley showed some pigs that were not sufficiently large for the class, but “as the merits of these pigs were so extraordinary, entirely forbidding recourse to disqualification, a committee was summoned, whereupon the judges declaring that, if removed from the Large White class the pigs would not be eligible for the Small White class”. The breed went on to become one of the foundation breeds of the British Pig Association.

Middle Whites are a stocky and compact breed with a snub nose and large prick ears. The breed was known as “The London Porker” because of high demand for Middle White pork in the capital. Find out more about Middle White pigs from the Middle White Pig Breeder's Club.