pinfold An animal pound is a place where stray livestock were impounded. Animals were kept in a dedicated enclosure, until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding. Etymology The terms "pinfold" and "pound" are Saxon in origi ...

was a structure into which straying animals were placed until they were retrieved by their owner on payment of a fine. Other terms for the structure were ''penfold'' or ''pound''. These names were derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

words ''pund'' (pound) and ''fuld'' (fold). In

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

, most of these were square or circular stone structures, although there is a circular pinfold in

Henbury Henbury is a suburb of Bristol, England, approximately north west of the city centre. It was formerly a village in Gloucestershire and is now bordered by Westbury-on-Trym to the south; Brentry to the east and the Blaise Castle Estate, Blaise Ha ...

. There is evidence of the existence of at least 153 pinfolds in Cheshire, although, as of 2010, only eight of these remain in the current county of Cheshire. There are also the remains of four other pinfolds in the county.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinfolds in Cheshire Agricultural buildings in England Buildings and structures used to confine animals Lists of buildings and structures in Cheshire