Moorsholm’s Forgotten Pinfold

By Don Smith

Pinfolds or pounds; the word pinfold was originally pronounced ‘pondfold’ and is most commonly used in the north.

Dating back to the medieval times, it means enclosure and was used to hold any livestock that strayed from the common land into the village and people’s gardens.

The pinfold’s purpose was to prevent animals from eating all the vegetables that people needed to live on - in those days you had to grow most of your own food.

By the late 1500s, every village in England had a pinfold or pound and the man hired to be in charge of it was called a pindar. He was employed by the Manor Court and was paid to round up, care for and feed the stray livestock, which ranged from cattle, horses and sheep to pigs and geese. It was an important role and one which continued for several centuries. To retrieve your animals, you had to pay a small fine or for the food the animals had eaten. Any money left over went to the poor of the village.

Then came the Enclosure Act when all the open common land above Moorsholm village was enclosed by hedges and made into fields. Farms were built and given 50 or 60 acres of land each. Former Moorsholm resident Robert Harding, who died at the age of 90 in 2021, told me that his granddad remembered the last person to be fined in the village for stray livestock in the late 1800s.

When I was a lad in the 1940s, we used to play in Moorsholm’s pinfold as there was no gate on it at that time. Then in 1971, my wife Doreen and I moved into Manor House Farm with our three children when my dad retired. The pinfold is across our driveway at number 34 which before my time used to be a farmstead, the land being at the bottom of the hill in the middle of the village which is now Overdean Farm. When I was young, number 34 was a two-bedroomed cottage with a row of farm buildings housing a few goats.

Around 1970, the site was bought and made

Guisborough Life magazine needs your help!

By Martin Smith

TheGuisborough Life magazine is still searching for someone to “put the magazine together” i.e with Desk Top Publisher experience.

We have not had a magazine out for nearly a year & have many readers, not just in the town but abroad in Canada & New Zealand. Onl;y two persons write the magazine which covers local events, new town developments & history. All our searches have been in vain but we are sure someone is out there who could help. There are only two copies a year - we would like three - & it is an A5 production sold in several shops in the town. This is a voluntary position so if you have the ability & would like to help please contact Martin on pongobing@tiscali.co.uk. into a four-bedroomed house. In 1975, the then owner told me that the pinfold was on his deeds and that he was going to put a locked gate on the original opening and make a gateway into his garden. What I didn’t discover until recently when my solicitor downloaded the deeds, was that the pinfold was on a possessory title at the time. This means that if you claim a piece of unregistered land and nobody objects within 12 years it is legally yours. This effectively meant the village lost the pinfold during this time. A few years ago, the next owner of number 34 turned the property into two houses, before selling them both in 2020. The original number 34 – which includes the pinfold - was bought by Moorsholm villager Karen Hill to use as a holiday cottage. I approached Karen and her mother Marion with the idea of renovating the pinfold and opening it back up for the village. After reading up on pinfolds online, Karen and Marion agreed this was a good idea. They kindly said they would give the pinfold to our family to look after for the future in return for us paying all legal costs. Since then, my son Mark and I have spent around 50 hours each clearing and renovating the site, and have bought signs and a plaque describing the pinfold’s history. As it dates back to the 16th century, the pinfold is the most historic structure in Moorsholm village, followed by Spout House across the road, which was built in 1697.

The pinfold, situated on the right of our drive, which is opposite Moorsholm Church Hall, is now open for the public to visit. Our plan is to purchase some life-size fibre glass farm animals to go inside the pinfold. However, these are very expensive, so if anyone is able to help with funding or has any imitation farm animals they would be happy to pass on, we would be very pleased to hear from them.

Our family has pledged that the pinfold will never again be utilised for personal use or gain, and we hope it will be a point of interest for Moorsholm villagers and visitors for many generations to come.