Robin Longbottom explores how one man made a successful transition from handloom weaving to pig breeding and showing

IN 1843, it was announced in the Bradford Observer "that the gentlemen of Keighley have originated a subscription, for the purpose of having an annual agricultural meeting...giving prizes for the best specimens of livestock."

The first meeting on November 22 took place off Lawkholme Lane and the prizes were only awarded for pigs, but in future years it was intended to include all livestock. A large number of pigs was entered and a total of 19 prizes, ranging from five shillings to £1-10 shillings, were awarded by three judges who had travelled from Riby in Lincolnshire, York and Broughton near Skipton. It was reported that "the show of pigs was remarkably fine, and was pronounced by the judges second to none they had ever seen."

The show, now an annual event, was subsequently held on land off Skipton Road in the area still known as Showfield. By 1845 the categories included horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and a ploughing match that took place at Marley. However, it was for pigs that it and Keighley became famous. There were two breeds of pig, the Large White and the Small White, and the show – and particularly the prize money – encouraged breeders ranging from labourers to gentlemen to improve their stock.

In 1846 Joseph Tuley, a handloom weaver from Exley Head, exhibited at the show and took prizes for his Large White and Small White breed. With the decline in handloom weaving, Tuley turned his hand to breeding and showing pigs. The arrival of the railway in 1846 presented opportunities for him to exhibit further afield and in July 1847 he attended the Great Yorkshire Show at York. He exhibited three sows bred by himself and the same month he also exhibited at the first Bradford Pig Breeding Association Show. In October he was back at Keighley Show where he took first prize for the best Large White sow in pig, or with a litter, and first prize for best Small White gilt (a female that hadn't yet bred). In 1848 his Large White sow Matchless took first prize of £10 at the Royal Agricultural Show, then peripatetic, and held in York. The next year he went on to show his pigs at the Royal Agricultural Show in Ipswich, the Great Yorkshire Show at Leeds, the Wetherby Agricultural Show, and the Birmingham and Midland Counties Show where he again had success with his pigs Matchless and Strawberry.

In 1850 he left Exley Head and took the tenancy of a 26-acre farm at Holy Croft, just off Oakworth Road in Keighley. He was now achieving great success with his breeding programme and his pigs were in demand. Matchless brought him such success that he named his house after it. During the 1840s he began cross breeding the Large White with the Small White and was instrumental in developing the Middle White pig which in 1850 was accepted as a new breed. In 1857 he moved to Truewell Hole Farm at Holmehouse near Laycock but by 1859 he had given up showing his pigs, possibly due to ill health, and he died in 1862.

Another noted local pig breeder was William Bradley Wainman of Carr Head, Cowling. His Small White were known locally as the 'Carr Head Breed' and one slaughtered in November 1852 weighed 32 stones aged 13 months. He is first recorded showing his pigs in 1853 and continued through into the 1860s.

The pure Large White is now classed as endangered, and the Small White became extinct in the 1900s. The Middle White, once so popular in London restaurants that it became known as the London Porker, is also classified as a rare breed.