home page   what's new?   email bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk to request updates (please mention Rutland Village by Village) or to offer new information   Rutland Village by Village only WWW Village by Village Ashwell Ayston Barleythorpe Barrow Barrowden Beaumont Chase Belmesthorpe Belton-in-Rutland Bisbrooke Braunston-in-Rutland Brooke Burley Caldecott Clipsham Cottesmore Edith Weston Egleton Empingham Essendine Exton Glaston Great Casterton Greetham Gunthorpe Hambleton Horn Ketton Langham Leighfield Little Casterton Lyddington Lyndon Manton Market Overton Martinsthorpe Morcott Normanton North Luffenham Oakham Pickworth Pilton Preston Ridlington Ryhall Seaton South Luffenham Stoke Dry Stretton Teigh Thistleton Thorpe by Water Tickencote Tinwell Tixover Uppingham Wardley Whissendine Whitwell Wing This site sponsored by   Heart of Albion

Wymeswold's pound in February 1991. Wymeswold is not in Rutland. But this is the only photograph I have of a pound before late twentieth century restorations. Pinfolds and pounds in Rutland The terms 'pinfold' and 'pound' are interchangeable throughout England. The Ordnance Survey maps from the 1880s label them as 'pinfolds'. But the Historic England database of listed structures can only be searched for 'pounds', not 'pinfolds'. There was once one in nearly every village. They are enclosures in which cattle and other animals could be held, either as a penalty for straying and causing damage, or as an indemnity against debt or default. They were in regular use before the eighteenth century when straying cattle and sheep were common in the open fields which had no hedges or fences to control animals. After the Enclosure Awards the new hedges kept livestock under better control. In medieval times the 'pinder' or 'pounder' who looked after the pinfold and any animals was an important officer of the Manor Court. He gathered strays, impounded them, then presented the owners to the Manor Court to be assessed for fines before collecting any fines so the animals could be released. Attempts were often made to rescue impounded animals. The rescue however had to be completed before the animals reached the pinfold. Once there they were considered in legal custody. Typical fines in the late eighteenth century were 1d for a horse, 2d for twenty sheep and 4d for a pig. In addition the pinder collected recompense for feeding the animals while impounded. In 'The Shepherd's Calendar', written in 1827, John Clare describes the arduous life of the Helpston Pinder: The Pinder on the Sabbath Day Soon as the darkness waxes grey Goes round the folds at early morn To see what stock are in the corn. There like a fox upon the watch He in the morning tries to catch And drive them to the pound for pay Careless about the Sabbath Day. Source Based on www.woodborough-heritage.org.uk/pinfoldappendix.html Pinfolds were usually erected on the edge of a village, just where the houses peter out and the fields take over. Rutland had over twenty pinfolds in the 1880s. The location of thirteen can be determined from 1884 OS maps. Note that the pinfolds at Exton and Manton are on a different OS sheet to the main part of the village. Caldecott (north-east of village centre) Clipsham (south-west of village centre) Edith Weston (south of village centre) Egleton (south of village centre) Empingham (north of village centre) Exton (north-east of village centre) Glaston (west of village centre) Manton (east of village centre) Market Overton (north-east of village centre) North Luffenham (north of village centre) Pickworth (south of Manor Farm) Tixover (north of village centre) Wing (west of village centre) So far as I am aware none of these have survived. The only pinfold that should have survived (because it's Grade II listed) is one described as being 'south of the Uppingham School art studio'. However the 'art studio' seems to have changed use – and name – in recent decades so I have yet to locate this pinfold. Historic England think it may be seventeenth century. In the mid-1970s a series of booklets were published by the Rutland Local History Society, based on oral history collected around 1973. These provide information about eight more pinfolds. According to the booklet about Ashwell published in 1976, 'Major Ritchie at Ashwell Rise exchanged a piece of land on the opposite side of the road for the pinfold to allow road straightening, the site of the pinfold now being under the road.' Brooke had a pinfold on the Common. The pinfold on Exton Lane in Empingham was demolished in the 1920s. Glaston pinfold was unusual as it had two compartments. It was also demolished in the 1920s. The pinfold at Normanton 'had fallen out of use by 1890'. The last pinard ('pinfold keeper') was Thomas Ball, according to oral history published in 1975. At Lyddington the pinfold was demolished in 1946 and replaced with prefabricated house shipped over from Sweden. However my attempts to locate these Swedish houses using Google Streetview have not been successful so maybe they too have been demolished. Manton's pinfold was to the east of the road near a large house called The Croft. In the early twentieth century the pinfold was surrounded by poplar trees. The stocks, remembered in the early 1970s to have been 'halfway up the village', may have been nearby. Stoke Dry's pinfold was on the opposite side of the road to the Manor lawn (with the village spring below the lawn). South Luffenham's pinfold was used until the 1890s. It was at the south end of Pinfold Lane with six-foot high walls and an iron gate. Most of it was demolished in 1910, although part of the wall survived in 1977. In the 1970s one farmer recalled walking his sheep from Ayston to Stamford market and resting the sheep in the pinfold overnight. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland in medieval times Rutland's medieval gargoyles Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the C17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the C18th turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and spas changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday windmills in Rutland stained glass in Rutland folklore of Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland ironstone railways ironstone quarries of Leicestershire (YouTube video) Rutland's railway stations Rutland's Mothers Union banners redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland