Fat Hog Quarter gets a roasting - Residents prefer to use St Simon as community name

Fat Hog Quarter resident Gregory Rowe has no qualms with the weird name of his beloved community, which is located in the north western parish of Hanover.

The 45-year-old Rastafarian, who is a member of a faith that has long declared war against pork, and summoned fire and brimstone for those consuming the meat, said he has no problem telling people that he is from Fat Hog Quarter. This is unlike some residents who do not want to be associated with the name, so much so that they have now been using St Simon to identify their community.

Rowe said that during his younger days he found the name of the community disturbing, particularly due to the fact that it appears to celebrate an 'unclean meat'. However, it no longer worries him.

"I grew up hearing people referring to the community as Fat Hog Quarter, but having taken up the Rastafari journey me and several other Rastas had huffed at the name," he said of his weird community name.

"When we were younger, we did feel a little way telling people that we are from Fat Hog Quarter, but today, we don't use that name any more. We all use St Simon," Rowe said.

The National Library of Jamaica said that Fat Hog Quarter was so named due to the fact that a large number of hogs used to populate the area. However, Lesma Getten, 63, a retired government employee, believes that a butcher played a role in the naming of the community.

"As far as I understand it, I asked an elderly man once, and he told me that the name Fat Hog Quarter came about after a butcher man, known as Charlie Maxwell, cut off a quarter of a fat hog he was taking to the Lucea market, upon realising that it was dying," Getten said.

"The hog was big and fat so he cut off the quarter from the back leg so he could sell it," she continued.

Maxwell's decision to have cut off a piece of the pig is said to have contributed to the community getting the weird name. Other residents posited that Maxwell once operated his butcher shop in the community's square, and the place may have received its name from the constant bragging of farmers about the size of their livestocks.

Joanna Walker, 73, a pig farmer from the community, said she has no problem with her weird community name, and has no interest in changing what was established long before she was born.

"Mi born come see and hear my family and the wider community people calling it that name," Walker said. "I raised a few pigs on my land so I could never have a problem with the name."

She also noted that most people don't use the name Fat Hog Quarter anymore. "They all call it St Simon. That's the modernised name we use at the post office these days."

Ava Reid, 52, a grocery shop operator, said she has never been comfortable to tell people that she is from Fat Hog Quarter.

"I don't like the name. When I am giving my address, I tell them St Simon, not Fat Hog Quarter. I was born here, and I heard everybody back then calling the place by that name, but I refused to use it," Reid said.

"I never grew up to see a whole heap of hogs raised up here so I don't know how they arrived at that name for the community. Fat Hog Quarter? I don't like that name."