Charles Colling and the Ketton Herd That Shaped the Shorthorn

Who was Charles Colling?

Charles Colling was a County Durham farmer who, with his brother Robert, improved the local cattle of the Tees valley into the Shorthorn. He was born in 1751 and died on 16 January 1836. The Wikipedia biography of Charles Colling describes him as an English stock breeder and notes his marriage in 1783 to Mary Colpitts, who shared his interest in breeding improved Shorthorns.

The Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Collection lists him as the co-founder of the Shorthorn breed, as shown on the Saddle and Sirloin beef cattle portrait gallery. That page gives 1903 as the induction year, though the link slug for his portrait refers to 1915, so sources differ.

Taking over Ketton in 1782

In 1782 Colling took over his father's farm at Ketton, near Darlington, shortly after visiting the famous breeder Robert Bakewell. He spent three weeks at Bakewell's Dishley estate. A common belief is that he learned in-and-in breeding there, but the Wikipedia account says what he actually took away was the importance of quality in cattle and a resolve to improve the local cattle of the Tees and Skerne valleys.

That distinction matters. Colling's later reputation rests on selection and the choice of bulls, and his best-known animals were produced by mating the best available cows to carefully chosen sires.

Hubback, Favourite and the Durham Ox

Charles's first valuable bull, later called Hubback, was bought from his brother Robert. At Ketton it was mated with cows including Duchess, Daisy, Cherry and Lady Maynard. In 1795 a daughter of Hubback, mated with the bull Favourite, produced a roan calf that became the Durham Ox.

At five and a half years the Durham Ox weighed 3,024 pounds and was sold as a show animal for £140. His later owner refused £2,000 for him and toured with him for six years. John Boultbee painted his portrait, which John Whessell engraved and published in March 1802. At about ten years old he weighed roughly 3,800 pounds, but he dislocated his hip and was killed at Oxford in April 1807.

Comet and the 1810 Ketton sale

Comet was born in the autumn of 1804. Colling considered him the best bull he ever bred or saw, and most Shorthorn judges agreed. On 11 October 1810 Colling sold his entire herd of 47 lots at a well-attended public auction. Comet sold for 1,000 guineas. The total was £7,116 18s, an average of about £151 a lot.

In recognition of his work, 49 subscribers gave him a silver-gilt cup the same year. The sale sent Ketton cattle across the north of England and beyond.

How Colling stock shaped Thomas Bates

Colling's cattle became the foundation of later Shorthorn dynasties. Thomas Bates took a twenty-one-year lease at Halton Castle in 1800 and bought his first Shorthorn cows from Charles Colling, paying 100 guineas for one cow, the first 100 guineas the Collings had received for a cow. At the 1810 sale Bates bought the cow Duchess for 185 guineas, according to the Stockton heritage profile of Thomas Bates, which dates his purchase of Young Duchess to the same year.

From that one cow Bates bred 63 more over eight generations, naming them Duchess 2 to Duchess 64. The Duchess tribe is the best-known line to come from Ketton.

Retirement, death and portraits

After the 1810 sale Colling lived in retirement. He died on 16 January 1836, in his eighty-sixth year. Thomas Weaver painted a picture of the two brothers around 1811, and William Ward engraved it for publication in 1825 and 1831.

Robert Colling had died in 1820. The Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Collection later preserved a double portrait of the brothers, painted by Robert Wadsworth Grafton from an original by James R. Stuart.

Learn more about Shorthorn history

To follow the breed across the world, see the ranching section of farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about Shorthorn cattle.