It has sometimes been suggested that it derives from five-toed (rather than the usual four-toed) chickens brought to Britain by the Romans in the first century AD,[9][10] but it is not known whether the Romans brought poultry with them, nor if they found five-toed poultry when they arrived.

[4] The Roman writer Columella, active at that time, mentions five-toed hens as being the best breeding-stock: "they are reckoned the most generous which have five toes".

It was the principal meat breed supplied to the metropolis until it was displaced by the Sussex in the early part of the twentieth century; it also became popular as an exhibition bird.

[8] Interest in the breed had decreased rapidly, and it drew close to extinction.

[13] There are five recognised colour varieties: white, silver-grey, red, dark and cuckoo.