Osmotherley Pinfold

Heading out of Osmotherley to the north, my eye was drawn to a little heritage sign marking the location of the Village Pinfold.

It seemed to be attached to a house, which surely came later.

It almost looks like a small-scale walled garden, which in modern times, is what it appears to have become. Well that, and a store for wheelie bins!

There's a single narrow entrance in the south wall, which you'd have to duck down to enter, canny and ideal if you're a sheep!

The Osmotherley Pinfold was in essence, a holding pen for any cow, pig, sheep or goose on the loose in the village.

Pinfolds were a feature of many a medieval village although this one dates back to the 1800s and is in relatively good nick, which makes it stand out. It's made up of lovely chunky, yellow sandstone blocks, well pointed and intact.

People here had small holdings with common grazing rights, but animals on the roam would have been ushered into the pinfold by the village Pinder, a person employed by the Lord of the Manor to scoop up loose animals who were breaching their grazing rights and left to be collected by their rightful owners in exchange for a fine!

But here's the rub. If Goosey Loosey's owners didn't cough up the fine for a fair return, the livestock would be sold at market and the pennies stashed by the Lord of the Manor.

On our drive over the Hambleton Hills, if I'd scooped up all the lambs on the loose, I'd have made a small fortune!

This Osmotherley Pinfold is in a great state of repair and is now a well-tended garden adjacent to a residential property. No sheep were held or sold in the writing of this post. It's just wheelie bins that are held captive these days.