I really dig pigs!
Last updated 14:52, Sunday, 18 May 2008
MOST people wouldn’t want to live in a pigsty – but Judy Taylor does!
The landlady of the Horse & Jockey Inn at Parsonby, near Aspatria, has more than 400 pigs littered around the place.
Judy, 55, bought her first piggy trinket on her wedding anniversary 14 years ago, but when she put it in the pub window regulars thought she collected them and soon began buying her porky treats.
Now she has fun and ornamental pigs of all kinds, from cuddly to porcelain, and even musical ones. She admitted that the pigs appear to have taken over the pub.
She said: “They are hanging up from the ceiling and everywhere.
“Customers bring me pigs back from their holidays and the children pick them up from car boot sales. The only time people think of me is when they see a pig!”
Her fascination with pigs began when she was a child and hand reared the runt of a litter.
She said: “He was named George, after the farmer I got him off, and he was lovely. He sat on my knee and watched Crossroads with me – he was like a little kitten.”
Judy said her husband Ian, 71, fully supports her penchant for the pink pets as he used to breed pigs himself.
“I always say I married one so that’s why I collect them,” she added.
Judy’s passion for pigs will feature on ITV Border’s Fun For Some television series tomorrow.
The programme, shown at 5.45pm, focuses on the unusual hobbies of people in the area and promises a mix of the eccentric, the traditional, the whacky, weird and wonderful.
Also appearing on the show will be Workington pigeon fancier Les Blacklock, showing off his flock.
Les, secretary of the Workington Victoria club, is also president of the Royal Racing Pigeon Association (RPRA), the sport’s highest office in Britain.
He has been a member of the RPRA since 1967 and on its council for 14 years.
Pigeon racing has been in his family for almost 100 years, since his great uncle started racing in 1910.
Les said: “I mean everything to my pigeons and they mean everything to me.”
dcattanach@cngroup.co.uk
