 The breed was originally developed as an amalgamation of several local lop-eared breeds in England, and came to be known as the British Lop in the 1960s.The earliest records of the breed are from the border of Cornwall and Devon, particularly the area around Tavistock.It is possibly related to similar breeds found around the north-western fringes of Europe, namely the Welsh, with which it was for a period in the 1920s in a combined breed registry, and the Landrace pig breeds of Scandinavia.