he photograph shows The Old House as it was in 1877, having just been occupied by an ironmonger named Mathew Oldfield. His display of manufactured "Birmingham" products such as buckets, watering cans and other artifacts of the industrial age is significant. Formerly, for many years, the property had been in the hands of a succession of sadlers. This evolution from artisan to retail was but one in the long life of the property.
The building was completed in 1621 and was situated at the end of what was known as Butcher's Row. However, no record of its original owner exists. It is possible that it was built for a wealthy butcher or retired drover. A coat of arms situated above the porch signifies the Butchers' Guild of London. This is considered curious as Hereford had its own Butchers' Guild which occupied rooms in the nearby Market Hall and there seems no authority for its use here. The city was an important consolidation point for many of the cattle droves which originated in Central Wales. Widemarsh Common was a stopping point on the trail to the rich arable lands of Bedfordshire and East Anglia where the beasts would be "finished" for final sale in the markets of London. Possibly the first owner was a member of the London Guild who took advantage of the local fatstock prices by purchasing his cattle "on the hoof" in Hereford.
At that time, the cattle droves were more than just a means of getting stock to market - they were a vital component in the financial system of the day. The trail bosses, or "Drovers" as they were known, were men of considerable wealth and influence. Each drover would assemble the four or five hundred animals, cattle, pigs and even geese, from among farms in the uplands of Wales. Men on foot with Corgi dogs were hired to drive the train to its destination while the drover rode at the head with his bodyguards. Using inns along the route as temporary offices, he would conduct various other kinds of business such as the carrying of letters and other instruments to the metropolis. He was able to settle accounts on behalf of his clients, pay their taxes and take money to sons studying at the Inns of Court. He did this by allowing the very animals to stand in for coin in a world where the movement of cash was problematical. Many drovers made fortunes this way by becoming the country's first retail bankers. Such a man may have been a member of the London Butchers' Guild or its agent.
If the property was originally the house of a banker-drover, it was appropriate that at the end of the 19th century it became a branch of the Worcester City and County Banking Company. This bank, subsumed later into Lloyd's Bank Limited, occupied the property until 1928, when it was generously donated to the City of Hereford.
The Old House is now one of the City's museums, recreating the life of a 17th century town house and providing one of the finest local examples of Jacobean architecture.