The old Welsh name for Builth was Buellt, which came from the 'wild ox', and the town's symbol shows a bull with large horns. Although it is so closely connected with livestock farming, Builth did not have a market place for many years, and animals were bought and sold in the streets.

This picture was taken in High Street, Builth in 1905, which was just four years after the death of Queen Victoria. Another photograph in this series, possibly taken on the same day, shows a similar scene looking along the High Street from the other direction.
It would have been difficult for farmers to keep their animals separate from others that were being sold, because they were all loose in the street and there were no enclosures as in livestock markets nowadays.
As you can imagine, the shopkeepers weren't too happy about the traces that the cattle left behind in the street after they had been taken away !

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