STAMFORD BULL RUNNING

In 1835 South Durham MP Joseph Pease succeeded in getting a Bill passed in Parliament ending bull baiting, dog fighting and cock fighting. But the annual Bull run in Stamford was to continue.  Here I consider this, how this was resisted and then consider the consequences of a recent occurrence of a young bull running through the middle of Birmingham.

The streets of Stamford today

For many years bull-running was practiced in Stamford, Lincolnshire on St. Brice’s Day in November each year. The legend of how this began is as follows:

Two bulls were found by some butchers fighting in a field. They tried to separate them, but instead drove the beasts onto the public highway where they headed off into the town of Stamford. The Earl of Ware observed this happening and rode off on horseback and successfully chased both bulls and secured them.

The Earl so enjoyed the chase after the bulls that he endeavored to reproduce this bull run each year. The even is described thus in the seventeenth century:

“…the bull was placed overnight in a stable belonging to the alderman in readiness for the sport. On the morning of St. Brice’s Day proclamation was made by the town bellman to the following effect: Each person was to shut up his shop door or gate, and none, under pain of imprisonment, were to do any violence to strangers, for the prevention of which – the town being a great thoroughfare – a guard was appointed for the passing of travellers through the streets without hurt. None were to have any iron upon their bull clubs or other staves with which they pursued the bull. After this proclamation had been made, the bull-running commenced. All the gates were shut; the bull was turned out of the alderman’s premises, and away he ran, helter skelter, with the men, women, and children, and dogs of the town after him in hot chase, goading him on. Hotter and faster the running became, until at last the poor beast, entirely exhausted, was brought to bay, and despatched with bull clubs.”

The cruelty of beating the bull with clubs was horrendous. If the bull was not ferocious enough they would lacerate the skin of the bull and pour spirits into its wounds. If the mob of bull baiters succeeded in driving the Bull through the town to the bridge and lifting it over the parapet into the river below  before noon they were entitled to a second bull.

Commentators of the time felt that the continuation of this horrendous sport was largely due to the patronage  it received from the well-to-do classes. This is possibly true as one of the first Bills to ban bull fighting and baiting proposed by the M.P. Sir William Pultney in 1800 was defeated by two votes. The future Prime Minister George Canning at the time spoke against the Bill declaring, “that this amusement inspired courage and produced a nobleness of sentiment and an elevation of mind.”

In 1824 the RSPCA was founded in a London coffee shop.

In November 1833 just before St. Brice’s day, one of the RSPCA’s supporters, Mr. Charles Wheeler, arrived in Stamford from London seeking to prevent the barbarous bull run. He presented a petition of 300 inhabitants  and handed it to the Mayor who ignored it much to Mr. Wheeler’s annoyance. Mr. Wheeler had a team of people handing out printed hand-bills against the bull run in the local inns and beer houses – they were mostly barred from these establishments. Mr. Wheeler did succeed in paying a bribe to prevent the horns of the bull being sawn off to the pith, scoring the back of the bull and poring vitriol into the wound or cutting the tongue out. Mr. Wheeler, after the event wrote to the Stamford Mercury painting a picture of Stamford as a den of thieves, drunkards and ne’re do wells that failed to respect the Sunday. This criticism was not well regarded and he and his friends were branded, “London Liars!”

In 1835 South Durham MP Joseph Pease succeeded in getting a Bill passed in Parliament to end bull baiting, dog fighting and cock fighting. It was perhaps a typical regional view that the people of Stamford did not wish to stop the bull run and the Home Secretary had to write to the magistrates of Stamford to instruct them, if possible, to prevent the anticipated bull running. This they failed to achieve.

The Government was outraged that Stamford could rebel against the law and in 1838 sent a troop of 35 men of the 14th Light Dragoons and a dozen metropolitan police officers to assist the Stamford magistrates in preventing the breaking of the law by the bull running due to happen on November 13th. To this force were sworn in 20 “respectable tradesmen” as special constables. The police approached any owners of bulls in the town and rounded them up to be placed in the yard of Standwell’s Hotel.

By half-past eight the magistrates had assembled their force of officers and patrolled the town. “The town from ten o’clock usually filled with people, but the day passed on without any signs of a bull in the streets, until nearly one o’clock; at that time a man whose name is ascertained to be Benj. Brown. Drove nine choice cows into the town from the north, and a cart, in which was a bull calf, between six and seven months old. Brown is a servant of E.J. Barnard Esq. M.P. of Gosfield Hall, in Essex, and had been sent to a farm of Mr. Allison of Bilby, near Blyth, Notts to fetch the cows and the calf having been bought  for Mr. Barnard at a late sale of Earl Spencer’s stock at Wiseton, near Doncaster. The bull calf had cost between £70 and £80, and the cows were also very valuable. The whole quietly passed the town hall in Stamford, under the observation of the magistrates and several officers there, and proceeded over the bridge into St. Martins……………a number of fellows set upon the cart, pulled out the young bull, and drove him back into town, followed by an immense concourse of yelling persons. The poor animal was driven through St. Mary’s Street, up Maiden Lane and down High Street, over Red Lion Square to Peterhill and the Roman Bank, and thence by water-furlong over the Welland to a close at Mr. Whincup’s on the south side of the river, near the Nunnery. As soon as the bull and the mob passed the George Inn in St. Martin’s, Capt. Harvey with his Dragoons hastened to the town hall, and their received the magistrates’ directions to support the London policemen in re-taking the bull. In a few minutes a very sharp collision with the mob arose, in the lane leading at the back of the George Inn, from the river to The Sun public house. The little bull, grievously distressed by its furious career and the annoyance it had endured, was speedily captured there, but the police and the military were violently pelted with stones by the mob, and it was necessary to use considerable force in driving them off: a man named Nath. Pollard, a brewer, who had seized the bridle of one of the Dragoon’s horses, was severely cut in the head and neck with a sword; and John Kisbee, a turner, was captured there; as well as William Pollard, a youth about 15 years of age, son of Mr. Jeremiah Pollard, butcher of St. Paul’s Street, who was seized in the act of throwing stones at the soldiers, and is now in goal charged with the offence by the Sergeant Major of the troop. The bull was immediately conveyed by police to the yard of Standwell’s Hotel, where it was lodged with the others.”

The following day Benj. Brown took the young bull and his cows off early in the morning before he could be called to give evidence against those that had stolen the young bull  and it was thought that this was deliberate. This was a battle of wills between the Government and a rebellious provincial town that though it could ignore the law. As such the Government won through as the cost of the soldiers, the metropolitan police and the subsequent judicial actions were born by the rate payers of Stamford.

However, the bull run did continue in 1834 albeit in a new format where the bull was chased through the streets of Stamford, then rested whilst “bullards” had lunch before being chased further around the streets and meadows of Stamford before being returned to his paddock. This event was with far less cruelty but was not within the law. Reporting on the welfare of the bull was thus: “It is but right to say that even the least semblance of torture was abstained from, and that setting aside the fatigue the bull underwent, he was returned as sound, to judge  from his appearance, as when he first started in the morning, and those who were thrown by him received no material injury.”[i]

By 1840 local “respectable” people agreed to support the local magistrates and patrolled the town to ensure no bull was released. The motivation appears to have been to avoid the expense of special constables that the town was incurring more than the welfare of the animals involved.

Early in June 2025 a young bull hit the headlines as it was found running around Birmingham. Whilst it created much amusement on the internet perhaps it should be of concern of how it got there. In “Marsh Fen and Town” I consider the reduction of abattoir facilities throughout the twentieth century and on Clarkson’s Farm I heard Jeremy Clarkson state there are only 49 slaughter houses retained in England.

People stated online that cattle are tagged and movements recorded so that it will be easy to trace. This is frankly naïve. Twice in my career as an Agricultural Bank manager I declined to support people because I was not happy with their cattle records. One had cattle that he claimed were his that were registered with three other farmers all from higher risk TB areas; another had several ear tags that simply did not show on their records despite the fact a conservation group was quite happy to let them graze their land. The simple fact is that trading standards are massively under-resourced to fulfil their obligations to police cattle movements and other compliance issues. Indeed, sometimes they simply employ the wrong people – I was visiting a farm near Boston when trading standards official came to check the records and other compliance such as the feed being used. The official had no wellies, no means of sterilizing footwear from one farm to another, and had to tie plastic bags on their feet. In addition they admitted to me that they hated visiting farms or being anywhere near livestock. Added to this is an unwillingness for farmers to report known wrongdoers.

Now I have never encountered cattle being slaughtered outside of an abattoir, but I have seen this with sheep and goats, apparently within the law. When I worked in Peterborough approaching Eid I saw a sheep taken into the rear of a property from my office window and saw it within minutes hanging and being skinned and butchered by someone that clearly was competent, but this did not sit well with me in a city location. I did speak to trading standards and it was explained to me that for private use this was legitimate and legal and they would not investigate. Now for balance I have seen livestock legitimately killed and butchered on smallholdings in a rural environment which I was far more comfortable with. On another occasion I was offered to buy cheap lamb from a Bedfordshire farmer’s freezer that sat in his blood-splattered garage where he killed and butchered them with low standards of hygiene in my humble opinion. If we continue to see a decline in legitimate slaughter, or make such things as halal slaughter illegal do we risk fuelling a black market? In my opinion the lack of numbers of abattoirs and the locations are well below sustainable levels for maintaining expertise and a sustainable supply of high welfare meat in the future.

[i] Drakards Stamford News 18.11.1834