This is the eleventh event in a series to highlight some of the pinfolds that are found within Derbyshire, with this one taking us to a small example in the village of Kirk Langley.
Pinfold is derived from the Saxon Old English pundfald meaning an enclosure & the term was used largely in the north & east of the country. These enclosures were used specifically to house stray cattle or sheep which had wandered from their owners' land or which had been found grazing on common land without common rights. These would be rounded up & kept in the pinfold until they were claimed. To retrieve the animals, a fine would have to be paid to the pinder, who was an officer of the Lord of the Manor. It was a serious offence to break your animals out of the pinfold, punishable by a further fine or imprisonment! Occasionally the pinfold might be rented as a temporary holding pen overnight by drovers on their way to market. Although they date from much earlier, it is thought that by the 16th century, almost every settlement would have had its own pinfold & pinder. Sadly, most of these have been lost over the years, but some survive almost intact whilst others have been restored.
Found beside a public footpath on Church Lane, I have been able to find out very little about Kirk Langley pinfold. It is rectangular in design with an unusually low wall, which would struggle to keep sheep in! However, it is in excellent condition. It's construction date is unknown, other than Post Medieval, which covers the period 1540 AD to 1900 AD!
This short event will give us an opportunity to meet up safely outside for some geochat & to swap trackables in hopefully peaceful & beautiful surroundings. I have provided a waypoint for suggested street parking & a couple of unusual attributes that hopefully won't be required! Please don't drive to the pinfold or park on the grass verges nearby. There are plenty of caches in the area, if you haven't found them already. There may even be a new cache published for the occasion...