Cattle Market Auction Building

TOW LAW NZ 13 NW A68 (East side)

23/309 Cattle Market Auction Building 05-JUN-1987 II

Cattle market auction building constructed in 1882.

MATERIALS: Wood with Welsh slate roof with glazed roof lights.

PLAN: 12-sided plan.

EXTERIOR: sides of battened boards with doors of similar construction in the north-west side to admit animals and a small boarded-shuttered opening in the south-west. The west side contains the auctioneer's office door and 2 sash windows with glazing bars, now boarded. The roof is conical roof of 12 sides and has a row of large square lights, most with glazing bars, near the centre.

INTERIOR: is entered through a small lobby with door to auctioneer's room on the left and door to main animal ring on the right. The centrally placed animal ring has a concrete floor with replacement scales at the western end. There are 3 tiers of wood benches behind a low wooden fence supplemented by a later steel rail, from which rise the rustic wooden roof supports. The auctioneer's desk is on the west side.

HISTORY: By the mid nineteenth century the long-distance, cross-border droving was being supplanted by the growth of the railways, whilst the historic animal fairs were gradually replaced by auction marts located beside railway stations. This former auction building is the only surviving part of a formerly larger livestock market situated in the centre of Tow Law immediately to the east of the High Street and adjacent to the former railway station. The auction building was built in c.1882 as a cattle market and it is depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of 1897. At this time, there are several other market buildings and animal pens. Successive OS maps show that the basic configuration of the cattle market remained unchanged until the later C20 when the mart was incorporated unaltered into a larger complex. The building closed in 2005.

SOURCES:Tow Law Cattle Market Auction Building 2008, Fairhurst; Alan Rushworth & Ian Roberts: The Drovers Project, The Historical and Archaeological Background 2005 Northumberland National Park Authority.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: This auction mart is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

• it is a good and intact example of this characteristic form of Border auction mart which reflects the importance of the wider agricultural economy

• the survival of a complete interior including animal ring, seating and auctioneers desk is of significant interest Listing NGR: NZ1207239067