The "Pigs"

[Dkc]

To this day an island in the river at owlerton is called swine island

Interesting information.

I think all the evidence overwhelmingly points to Wednesday being pigs.

 

[Weasel]

Most wendy fans arent very original. For a long time into the 90s they hadnt moved on from 80s skin tight jeans, adidas top and black adidas samba trainers with tongue stretched up and pulled up in front of jeans. Often could be found with a wendy match day program in their back of jeans pocket. Throw in a Curran semi perm and they were the coolest cats going. They didnt have the imagination to come up with most things other than changing to porridge in the winter and possibly dumpin wadsley bridge doris for deidre from parson cross. Thick as two short planks most of em. Any originality or individualism came from the red side of sheffield. We used to a have a repertoire of songs and lyrics in the 70s and 80s that a grunter could only dream of. Maybe biased....but its true. Thank the stars every day that your a Blade...and not a pig.

 

[CarlingBlade]

A team started by a load of butchers who didnt like to owls nickname, picked up when they moved to owlerton and insisted on calling them t'pigs.

That's the bollocks i've heard, on relfection have the pigs ever come up with owt original, i stick with the notion of giving him a good kicking on the Christmas Party while none of your colleagues are in view then deny all knowledge, folk will respect you more if he's the office prick (which most pigs are!).

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

Do what I do with pigs at work, politely explain that if they talk shit they will get twatted, I have used it on several occasions with great success

 

[alcoblade]

Now then.

I've done a quick search and can't spot any threads discussing this so my apologies if I've missed it (I'm relatively new).

I wanted to try and get something cleared up, that's essentially been the bane of my life on an almost daily basis since I started a new job in March.

There's a lad at work who's a big Wednesday fan, and aside from the occasional banter he does something that really pisses me off.

He grunts like a pig when I come to see him, and regularly calls me a pig, an oinker, pink and white baconer etc. This all came to a head recently when I told him that although it's a term I never use, Wednesday are actually the pigs, and not united, which stems from the Hillsborough ground being built on old farm land.

This was obviously debunked on the spot, and the counter claim was that Wednesday have always called United "The Pigs" and that we basically started copying them.

I can't seem to find any references online regarding the validity of the Pig Farm theory, only vague references to old posts on the Sheffield Forum where the same debate has been had several times.

So, can anyone clear it up? Who are "The Pigs"? Or is it simply that we both call it each other?

I don't mean to cause any offense in this post, so if any has been taken I apologise.

ekke

You should always offend Wednesday fans.

Piggy bastards.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

wednesday fans arent that bright
they call themselves massive
but still sing about a win in a division 3 game from 37 years ago
dont hear man city fans singing about any of their division 3 games
and how can they call themselves a superior team having only one league double over us in the past 100 years

just doesnt make sense

Let's be right, they've little to proud of following their team.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Most wendy fans arent very original. For a long time into the 90s they hadnt moved on from 80s skin tight jeans, adidas top and black adidas samba trainers with tongue stretched up and pulled up in front of jeans. Often could be found with a wendy match day program in their back of jeans pocket. Throw in a Curran semi perm and they were the coolest cats going. They didnt have the imagination to come up with most things other than changing to porridge in the winter and possibly dumpin wadsley bridge doris for deidre from parson cross. Thick as two short planks most of em. Any originality or individualism came from the red side of sheffield. We used to a have a repertoire of songs and lyrics in the 70s and 80s that a grunter could only dream of. Maybe biased....but its true. Thank the stars every day that your a Blade...and not a pig.

Talking about them not moving on, they actually still have the band!!! When was that a fad, about the same time as the inflatable bananas
If we needed a band to generate a bit of atmosphere, I'd be seriously embarrassed.

 

[Bladeloyal]

I'll just say piggy jack the flying pig Mel and the badge which when brought out soon had a curly tail and a snout . abart 1978 it started

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

It's a shit nickname, always has been, always will be. Only about 4% as funny as most people seem to think it is.

The constant bickering over it is fucking sad and embarrassing.

The pigs, if anything are the police.

If you ever have to refer to Wednesday fans then just call them cunts.

 

[Bert]

The Wednesday football club was formed on 4th September 1867. The football club first played its games at the Olive Grove Sports Ground in Heeley before moving to a new stadium in the Owlerton district of Sheffield. The first Ordnance Survey maps (1850's) mark a building close to where the stadium now stands as 'Swine Cottage'. They also show another farm on Penistone Road, south of where the North Stand is situated, which was also believed to be a large piggery. Pork farming is thought to have been practised in the area since the early 1800's, and did not cease until around 1900 when the city's rapid expansion put an end to livestock production in the area. At its height the "Owlerton Piggery," as it was known, provided work for some 50 employees.

Initial discussions about a nickname began soon after the Wednesday arrived at Owlerton. In reference to their new home, most club officials were in favour of "The Owls." However, another suggestion was also popular. In view of the area's strong tradition of pork farming, a popular grass-roots alternative was "The Pigs." Although the name "Owls" prevailed, many working class supporters continued to refer to their team as "t'pigs." A popular song of the time "They may be t'Owls to some, (but they'll always be pigs to me)" was performed in music halls across South Yorkshire. As late as the 1920's, fans used to welcome their team onto the field with the characteristic grunting sound we still associate with the club. This peculiarity was once referred to by BBC commentator Edward Milburn, who famously described Hillsborough as a "sea of grunts" moments after The Wednesday won the First Division title in 1932.

To be honest that is all utter bollocks. Calling each other pigs never happened until at least the late 70's/early 80's. Anyone who was around Bramall Lane in the 70's especially in 1971 will tell you the same.

It is, in Bert's opinion pathetic anyway.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

The Wednesday football club was formed on 4th September 1867. The football club first played its games at the Olive Grove Sports Ground in Heeley before moving to a new stadium in the Owlerton district of Sheffield. The first Ordnance Survey maps (1850's) mark a building close to where the stadium now stands as 'Swine Cottage'. They also show another farm on Penistone Road, south of where the North Stand is situated, which was also believed to be a large piggery. Pork farming is thought to have been practised in the area since the early 1800's, and did not cease until around 1900 when the city's rapid expansion put an end to livestock production in the area. At its height the "Owlerton Piggery," as it was known, provided work for some 50 employees.

Initial discussions about a nickname began soon after the Wednesday arrived at Owlerton. In reference to their new home, most club officials were in favour of "The Owls." However, another suggestion was also popular. In view of the area's strong tradition of pork farming, a popular grass-roots alternative was "The Pigs." Although the name "Owls" prevailed, many working class supporters continued to refer to their team as "t'pigs." A popular song of the time "They may be t'Owls to some, (but they'll always be pigs to me)" was performed in music halls across South Yorkshire. As late as the 1920's, fans used to welcome their team onto the field with the characteristic grunting sound we still associate with the club. This peculiarity was once referred to by BBC commentator Edward Milburn, who famously described Hillsborough as a "sea of grunts" moments after The Wednesday won the First Division title in 1932.

Are you telling porkies?

 

[S20Eddie]

I've found that standing in front of them, with your arms outstretched, 'MASSIVE' smile on your face and saying "All Blades Aren't We" really has the desired affect to pissing a porker off to the extent of them struggling to get their words out fast enough.......they seem to go into some kind of mental spontaneous combustion.

 

[northsomersetblade]

To be honest that is all utter bollocks. Calling each other pigs never happened until at least the late 70's/early 80's. Anyone who was around Bramall Lane in the 70's especially in 1971 will tell you the same.

It is, in Bert's opinion pathetic anyway.

I think it might have started with that badge...the rest is back filling urban myths. You definitely used to see it drawn on walls with the curly tail and snout in 1979. I see they introduced it in 73 according to Wikipedia

 

[frank drebin]

It's a shit nickname, always has been, always will be. Only about 4% as funny as most people seem to think it is.

The constant bickering over it is fucking sad and embarrassing.

The pigs, if anything are the police.

If you ever have to refer to Wednesday fans then just call them cunts.

It's really is

When you don't live in Sheffield anymore and see some of the arguments it's embarrassing and cringe worthy

 

[pommpey]

From Wikipedia

Pigs (colloquialism)

Sheffield United supporters often refer to their cross-city rival supporters as 'pigs'. The origins of this term are unclear however Dr Samuel Johnson made an entry into his 'Dictionary of the English Language' in 1746 which read:

"Pyg: (nown) On oft certaine persons of illidgitimatecy and high retardeness. It hath been observed they lifed in Northe of Sheaffeld and atteynde Owlestown staydium efery satday to wached iydiots dress'd iyn blue and whyte run'd rounde lyke cuntes. They supporteds syng songeth like 'Come on youu Wendesaye!' and loooketh lyk cuntes. Anuther worde for thym is wankers"

The term 'pigs' started being used when it was discovered that the only day low-level slaves could get the day off to play football was Wednesday, so they were booted out of the Sheffield Football Club Alliance, founded sometime in the 1870s. No one is quite sure when and no one cares but feeling sorry for their exit from the home of football at Bramall Lane, the new club Sheffield United said 'well, ar. if tha' wants' to a claim that the exiles were founded in 1876 (or summat) and could wear it on their badge, as if it made any difference. The new club, playing in red and white stripes, could either play cricket or football (whichever they wanted, whilst the other lot looked round everywhere in Sheffield for somewhere to play. Endcliffe Park was covered in dogshit, Graves Park was owned by a Blade and Clumber Park was more than two tram rides away. So they made their home on a strip of spare grass north of Hillsborough Park, which was being used to graze pork stock, prize Wadlsey blackface grunters, with big, distended arseholes and tits like Wombles noses. The bacon these beasts produced tasted like the wipings of a dingos helmet. The team immediately signed three of them to augment their team which read:

---------------Grummit---------------

---Sheila (pig)---Eckinthorpe (c)-

Quinn----Blackie (pig)-----Craig

Olleranshaw Jnr----Olleranshaw Snr

Wanker---Ted the Treasurer----Faustus (pig)

They finished bottom of the Sheffield and Hallamshire District Livestock League for the next ten seasons, signing more and more of the grazing animals to offset the departure of players to other occupations, such as male prostitution and shit digging. The fans stayed loyal, reveling in their new name of 'Pigfans' and even invented a new song for themselves:

"Oh, Pigfans in town
Hillsborough looks like my brown eye
Our team is dead, the best team's in red
And the year is 1889"

In 1889, sick of laughing at their city rivals, The Sheffield United Cricket and Football Club emerged, and started playing both sports at their beautiful downtown venue at Bramall Lane.

During their games, pigfans would snort and squeal like their idols down on the pitch, and when The Wednesday Pigs (as they were now calling themselves) drew their support from the less fashionable regions of Northern Sheffield where grinding poverty and syphilis rendered men beyond mental help and women massively fat and susceptible to pregnancy by genetic matching with similar mutants. (see The Jeremy Kyle Show)

The name 'pigs' has stuck with Sheffield Wednesday ever since, despite the club's efforts to align itself to the nearby slum of Owlerton. Some sort of correlation with 'Owls' has been vainly associated with Sheffield Wednesday for over one hundred years, but everyone knows it is a fat fucking lie. All of the footballing world, even Mbastugnudu Rovers (Belgian Congo, League Division Six) knows that Sheffield Wednesday are 'pigs' and their supporters are 'pigfans'.

Biblical Reference

Jeremiah 1:13

"Verily. The LORD spaketh the name of the team of dirt, and disgrace, and filth. HE saw that they were cunts and would stay as cunts until the soil rent asunder and the heavens poured fire. They who spaketh their name would be known as Pigfans and the team would be called Sheffield Wednesday. They were unworthy, unclean and unsound of mind. So sayeth the LORD. Amen"

Informative.

pommpey

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

It's really is

When you don't live in Sheffield anymore and see some of the arguments it's embarrassing and cringe worthy

The argument doesn't go anywhere. It's literally this:

'Ha ha, you're a pig'
'No, you're a pig'
'No, you're the pigs'
'You're the pigs!'
'No, you're the pigs. We called you it first'
'No we called you it first!'

Pathetic.

 

[WhiteHawk]

I think Helen Chamberlain once called the Sheffield Derby the Pig Derby on Soccer AM.

 

[pommpey]

I think Helen Chamberlain once called the Sheffield Derby the Pig Derby on Soccer AM.

Yeah, well she's a pastyfaced gronk. Her local derby is either with Exadarr Ciddy (who?) or Plymmerf Urguyle (who?)

pommpey

 

[Stretch]

To be honest that is all utter bollocks. Calling each other pigs never happened until at least the late 70's/early 80's. Anyone who was around Bramall Lane in the 70's especially in 1971 will tell you the same.

It is, in Bert's opinion pathetic anyway.

I think it might have started with that badge...the rest is back filling urban myths. You definitely used to see it drawn on walls with the curly tail and snout in 1979. I see they introduced it in 73 according to Wikipedia

Well before my time lads so I definitely am not arguing but would only add what I was told by my grandad when I asked him after hearing the name flung around as a kid. He was a Blade, but of that generation that also watched the dark side on alternate weeks as a younger man and always wanted all of the local teams to do well. He even talked fondly of Leeds!
Anyway he claimed that it started in the early 60s when they used Hogs coaches for away trips and it was actually away supporters from other clubs who used to call it them on the return fixture at the Sty. Blades only picked up on this later and of course they didn't like it and threw it back.

Could just be bollocks that someone told him of course but thought I would chuck it in.

 

[YES Blade]

The argument doesn't go anywhere. It's literally this:

'Ha ha, you're a pig'
'No, you're a pig'
'No, you're the pigs'
'You're the pigs!'
'No, you're the pigs. We called you it first'
'No we called you it first!'

Pathetic.

Agreed, it's just like two kids arguing in a playground.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Now then.

I've done a quick search and can't spot any threads discussing this so my apologies if I've missed it (I'm relatively new).

I wanted to try and get something cleared up, that's essentially been the bane of my life on an almost daily basis since I started a new job in March.

There's a lad at work who's a big Wednesday fan, and aside from the occasional banter he does something that really pisses me off.

He grunts like a pig when I come to see him, and regularly calls me a pig, an oinker, pink and white baconer etc. This all came to a head recently when I told him that although it's a term I never use, Wednesday are actually the pigs, and not united, which stems from the Hillsborough ground being built on old farm land.

This was obviously debunked on the spot, and the counter claim was that Wednesday have always called United "The Pigs" and that we basically started copying them.

I can't seem to find any references online regarding the validity of the Pig Farm theory, only vague references to old posts on the Sheffield Forum where the same debate has been had several times.

So, can anyone clear it up? Who are "The Pigs"? Or is it simply that we both call it each other?

I don't mean to cause any offense in this post, so if any has been taken I apologise.

ekke

Kick him in the bollocks and tell him to fuck off

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Thick as PIG SHIT as my Grandad would say!

No matter how much Taiwanese lipstick you slap on it it's still a pig

 

[Hillsboro Blade]

I've found out through life that you can't argue with a fucking idiot and by and large Pork fans are fucking deluded idiots.

 

[blackydog]

I don't like calling them Pigs. Pigs are very nice animals.
An adult Pig has the cognitive awareness of an average 5 year old child. Also, if kept in the right conditions they are relatively clean creatures and keep a separate space for eating and shitting. Two ways in which they are superior to the average Wednesday fan.

I prefer "scum" or "filth".

Which is why I don't eat them.

 

[Esablade]

Threaten to send Esablade in to bore him to death...

This is getting to be quite obsessive...did the nurse drop your dosage recently?

 

[Esablade]

'Swine Cottage'....a fitting moniker if ever I heard one...

 

[South Bucks]

You know all this bouncing they do, is it because they all have crabs and are trying to shake them out of their undies. Can't be good for making bacon.

 

[South Bucks]

The Wednesday football club was formed on 4th September 1867. The football club first played its games at the Olive Grove Sports Ground in Heeley before moving to a new stadium in the Owlerton district of Sheffield. The first Ordnance Survey maps (1850's) mark a building close to where the stadium now stands as 'Swine Cottage'. They also show another farm on Penistone Road, south of where the North Stand is situated, which was also believed to be a large piggery. Pork farming is thought to have been practised in the area since the early 1800's, and did not cease until around 1900 when the city's rapid expansion put an end to livestock production in the area. At its height the "Owlerton Piggery," as it was known, provided work for some 50 employees.

Initial discussions about a nickname began soon after the Wednesday arrived at Owlerton. In reference to their new home, most club officials were in favour of "The Owls." However, another suggestion was also popular. In view of the area's strong tradition of pork farming, a popular grass-roots alternative was "The Pigs." Although the name "Owls" prevailed, many working class supporters continued to refer to their team as "t'pigs." A popular song of the time "They may be t'Owls to some, (but they'll always be pigs to me)" was performed in music halls across South Yorkshire. As late as the 1920's, fans used to welcome their team onto the field with the characteristic grunting sound we still associate with the club. This peculiarity was once referred to by BBC commentator Edward Milburn, who famously described Hillsborough as a "sea of grunts" moments after The Wednesday won the First Division title in 1932.

Excellent, anyone able to put this on their wikipedia page?

 

[Hackblade]

To be honest that is all utter bollocks. Calling each other pigs never happened until at least the late 70's/early 80's. Anyone who was around Bramall Lane in the 70's especially in 1971 will tell you the same.

It is, in Bert's opinion pathetic anyway.

Well said Bert.

 

[coolhandluke]

What is absolutely undeniable in this whole debate is the high density of ' piggeries ' throughout Hillsborough and Wadsley Bridge during the 19th Century .

The Sheffield flood of 1864 sadly decimated these areas . Aside from the tragic loss of life ( over 240 lives were lost ) entire livelihoods were destroyed . A great number of insurance claims were made by small businesses in the area and what is abundantly clear is the sheer number of claims made for the loss of livestock due to the flood . The overwhelming majority of claims made were for the loss of pigs . This in itself reveals , unequivocally , the dominance of piggeries as small businesses in the area .

What this reveals of course is the fact the Hillsborough WAS built on land dominated by a number of piggeries .

The records of the claims made in the wake of the flood are in the public domain and are freely available for members of the general public to view .

Now , was the undeniable fact that Hillsborough WAS built on piggeries the reason they are known as the pigs ? Well , I'll leave you to decide . Personally speaking , for me , there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever who are the pigs and why they are called t'pigs

Apologies if already posted .