OXFORD Cattle Market went out of existence with a whimper.

The last day of trading on March 21, 1979, ended a link between Oxford and its rural hinterland that went back to the city’s beginnings.

Every week, farmers, dealers and stockmen would flock to the market to buy and sell livestock at auction.

The market did a roaring trade for many years, but by the end, with the closure having been announced, it had been reduced to a trickle.

No ceremony was held to mark the end of one of the city’s longest traditions.

There was a feeling among the city fathers that a cattle market in a modern city like Oxford was an anachronism and that valuable city centre land should be used more profitably.

The market was held at Gloucester Green until 1932 when it moved to Oxpens.

Several Memory Lane readers remember the old pens at Gloucester Green and later, livestock being driven through the streets from Oxpens to the abattoir at Eastwyke Farm, off Abingdon Road.

Youngsters with sticks would turn out to help staff make sure the animals did not stray.

In later years, a stalls market was held alongside the cattle market, with fruit, vegetables and all sorts of merchandise on sale.

When the cattle market closed in 1979,the stalls market was moved to one half of the site, and demolition men moved in to demolish the pens in the other half, ready for work to begin on extensions to the Oxford College of Further Education, now Oxford & Cherwell Valley College.

Traders often complained that the Oxpens site was “out on a limb” and in 1982, the market returned to its historic site in Gloucester Green, but with no animals.