The oldest inn /
public house in Yarm is probably The
Ketton Ox, neatly situated at No.100 High Street . It is named after the famous bull of the same name which is
illustrated above.
This immense
animal, better known in later life as the Durham Ox, lived during 1796-1807,
and was an early example of what came to be known as the Shorthorn breed of
cattle. Bred by Charles Colling of Ketton Hall, near Darlington , it hit the
headlines after being exhibited in Darlington in 1799. In 1801, John Day bought the beast and renamed it the Durham Ox, showing it to
gawping crowds far and wide across the land – spending most of 1802 in London alone.
Its weight was
variously given as 171 stone – 270 stone, but its bulk was to prove
its undoing when, in February 1807, it damaged its hip getting out of a
carriage and had to be slaughtered several weeks later. It was said to be 189
stone dead weight.
Its legacy lives
on in many an etching and painting (its image was even set in porcelain) – and
in dozens of pub names around the world. Astonishingly, a town in Australia
is even named after it.
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