IN the article in the Advertiser dated May 3 regarding the change of pub name to ‘Pig on the HIll’ Bryn Walters states that ‘there is no evidence that Swindon ever had anything to do with pigs in its early origins’.
As one of the excavators of the ten sunken floored huts so far recorded in the saxon settlement that lies to the east of the High Street I would like to point out that numerous animal bones were recovered within their fills. Of these 30 per cent were cattle, 50 per cent sheep and 20 per cent pig. It is feasible that the pigs did spend much of their life in wooded areas on the surrounding clay lands, but it is incorrect to say that pigs in early history never set trotter on the hill.
As for the naming of Swindon most academics believe that the origin of the name is derived from Anglo-Saxon and translates as ‘the down where pigs live’ although the other option of Sven’s hill is a reasonable alternative.
BERNARD PHILLIPS Yiewsley Crescent Swindon
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