Pinfold on Heath CommonVillage in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, noted for its ancient common and the number of "mansions" around it. Source: Wikimedia Commons
A pinfold, or pound, was in medieval times an enclosure in the charge of a pinder, to which stray domestic animals, cattle, sheep, pigs and even geese were taken, where they were kept until their owners paid a fine for their release.[1][2]
The word pinfold is derived from the Old English pund, meaning a pound, and fald, a pen or enclosure. Pinfold is commonly used in the north, north-west and east of the country, and pound is common further south and south-west.[3]
Bosworth, Joseph, and T. Northcote Toller. “Pund.” An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth, Online, Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014, https://bosworthtoller.com/57007.
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