(4,574) Bull Ring.—The “History of Kingston” (1845) gives a clue to the answer to this query. It states: “The Town Weighing Machine was erected in 1841, nearly on the ground where the Bull-ring was originally fastened to a stone in the pitching.” The “ring” was therefore not an enclosure, but an iron ring secured to the ground and about six inches in diameter, to which the bull was securely tethered by a rope of suitable length for the baiting. Thus secured no enclosure was required, and it would not be easy to provide one of sufficient strength to protect spectators from the charge of a bull in the open streets of a town.—A. W., Hereford.
Source info: Journal title in cutting; MS note by AW “Sept 1st 1923”.
This reply is doubtless from Watkins.