A Breed Apart

Why Adam Henson has finally got round to committing the story of our nation’s livestock heritage to print

The Royal County – it’s a special label for a place that has a regal history that goes all the way back to William the Conqueror almost 1,000 years ago. Berkshire is rightly proud of Windsor Castle, Reading Abbey, Frogmore House and the battle sites of the Civil War. But for me there’s something every bit as fascinating, magnificent and historic as the Kings and Queens of England – step forward the Berkshire pig!

They’re handsome, big-eared beauties with a coat that’s the same colour as a decent pint of Guinness and six distinctive white points (snout, feet and tail). This marvellous creature is a British rare breed and one of more than a hundred varieties of old, traditional farm livestock, which are as much a part of the landscape and heritage of the British Isles as the highest hills, the greenest valleys and the oldest oak trees.

From Exmoor ponies and Suffolk Punch horses to Gloucester cattle and Golden Guernsey goats, every breed evolved, or was developed, to suit its particular surroundings or the needs of the local farmers and traders. So we get small, wiry agile sheep in rocky windswept Shetland but big, flamboyant longwool sheep lazily grazing the meadows of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. I’ve been busy collecting the stories of these remarkable animals for a brand new book, A Breed Apart: My Adventures with Britain’s Rare Breeds.

The book follows my journey around the British Isles as I recount tall tales and true testimony about these unique, resourceful and characterful creatures. I’ve devoted a large section to Berkshire, but the whole story begins and ends at home.