November 2025

The Fordhall herd of pigs has a new boy in town. A young Gloucester Old Spot boar was introduced into the breeding sows back in September with the hope that new piglets will be blessing us early in the new year. The gestation of a female pig (sow) is exactly three months, three weeks, three days. So, we are expecting four litters of piglets this November - it will be a busy month! The new boar came from our friend Mr Whitley in Yorkshire. He breeds pedigree Gloucester Old Spots and is a regular at most of the big agricultural shows around the country.

Part of the reason we have moved our Old Spot Gloucester Pigs relates to Cottage Field. This isn’t just a field. It’s part of Fordhall’s organic heritage, a home for our free-range pigs, and it enables us to run our pasture-based Foggage farming system. Sadly, we are no longer allowed to rent and farm Cottage Field from the current landowners. This field was not placed into community-ownership in 2006 with the rest of Fordhall. It has remained in private ownership with the landowners intending to sell it for development when they are able. The Fordhall Community Land Initiative hopes to buy this field and place it into community-ownership with the rest of Fordhall Farm as soon as the opportunity arises. In the meantime, we’re remaining quietly hopeful that there’s a chance it will continue to be farmed by Fordhall again soon.