Banbury cattle market closes in England

1998 - One of Britain’s most famous cattle markets closed after mad cow disease helped end 1,000 years of trading in Banbury. Banbury market in Oxfordshire, northwest of London, is one of Britain’s oldest with a history stretching back to the Domesday Book, a record of the lands of England made in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. Once the biggest in Britain, the market has occupied its current site since the mid-1920s. Jim Watson, chairman of the Midland Marts in Banbury, said other British livestock markets were heading for closure as more farmers switched to crops from cattle because of falling beef prices.