Sign for the Durham Ox

Image: © Jonathan Kington Taken: 20 Mar 2011

Attached to Image, there appears to be a little artistic licence here- the real Durham Ox was a lot bigger! The Durham Ox was a huge animal that was bred in 1796 from a “common” cow and a Shorthorn bull by the brothers Charles and Robert Colling of Ketton Farm near Darlington in County Durham (see Image by Hugh Mortimer). The ox was bought by a wealthy aristocrat for £250, a lot of money at that time, who built a specially designed carriage for it and for six years sent the animal touring England and Scotland, it would travel from one agricultural show to another, the owner receiving a portion of the show’s admission fees; on a single day during 1802 in London it earned its owner a total of £92 (a small fortune in those days). Whilst touring it achieved a fantastic maximum weight of 270 stones (1715 kilograms). During those five years on tour the Durham Ox travelled over 3,000 miles, before it dislocated its hip during a show in Oxford in February of 1807. Slaughtered two months later it weighed 189 stones (1200 kilograms). Not only did people pay to see the Durham Ox, but in 1802 alone over 2000 prints by John Boulbee of the squarish, roan ox were sold; these prints were hung in homes, inns, and coaching houses. The ox's image even appeared on blue and white Staffordshire dinner services. It became so famous that many inns were named after the Durham Ox of Ketton Farm.

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