Coverdale, North Yorkshire
Hollin Rigg Farm
Margaret took over Hollin Rigg from her father in the 1980s and runs one of the last working Saddleback herds in the Dales.
Farmer
Margaret WhittleHolding
145 acresHerd
Saddleback pigs, free-range hensBreeds
British Saddleback, Light SussexHollin Rigg looks much as it did when Margaret's father took the tenancy in 1953: a stone longhouse, a yard of grey limestone setts, three paddocks of British Saddleback sows and a wandering flock of Light Sussex hens.
“I have buyers waiting two years for a half pig. I will not breed faster to please them.”Margaret Whittle
The Saddlebacks are a rare breed kept on the watchlist by the RBST. Margaret has run a closed herd for 28 years, breeding only from her own line and selling weaners to a small group of trusted growers.
The pace at Hollin Rigg is set by the pigs, not the market. Pork is sold by the half-carcass to a waiting list, and what does not go through that channel is cured into bacon and gammon in a small smokehouse built into the byre.