AN UNUSUAL pig is making a comeback in the UK thanks to pig breeder Tony York, who runs a farm near Warminster.

Mr York was incensed when the Lincolnshire Curly Coat breed became extinct in 1972 in this country and, after many years, has reintroduced a similar type of pig.

The Lincolnshire Curly Coat resembled a sheep due to its woolly coat.

Mr York and his partner Carron McCann moved to Drove Lane in Market Lavington just over a year ago from Staffordshire.

Mr York started Pig Paradise in Wales in 1991 while Ms McCann ran Piggywigs Farm in Chitterne.

Mr York, who does not have any children, met Ms McCann, who has a daughter and a son, on a course he ran in Staffordshire.

Together they formed a company called Pig Perfect, based at their farm in Chitterne.

They moved to Wiltshire as they needed more space to run their pig courses.

In the early 1900s Britain exported many Lincolnshire Curly Coats to Hungary and the Hungarians crossed them with a similar curly coated pig called the Mangalitza, with the resultant cross nicknamed the Lincolista.

Mr York spent £10,000 on bringing over 17 Mangalitzas from Austria and Hungary in 2006.

One of the resulting piglets, a boar called Boris, was born at Mr York's farm in Chitterne.

Boris impregnated one of the other Manglalitzas, called Betty Boo at Mr York's farm, and the piglets were born last May. Altogether there are about 50 of the rare breed pigs in the UK.

Mr York started keeping pigs in 1976 and took early retirement from a successful sales and marketing career in 1991 to devote his time to breeding rare breeds.

He said: "I have always been passionate about rare breed pigs and I have kept them for a long time.

"I became very incensed when the Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig became extinct here. The Lincolnshire Curly Coat was the most incredible pig."

It took a decade for Mr York to achieve his dream of getting the Mangalitza breed into the UK.

The breed comes in three colours - blond, bright red and swallow bellied - and Mr York took one boar of each to accompany 14 sows.

The British Pig Association has agreed to register the pigs as direct descendants of the Lincolnshire Curly Coat. When the Lincolnshire Curly Coat was alive it not only provided meat but its woollen coat was made into sweaters at a UK factory.