Eastby Pound sits at the bottom of Eastby Bank, where the road turns sharply into the village, adjacent to Bark Lane and Eastby Hall. 

As all local residents know, Eastby Bank is a very steep hill, requiring some effort to walk or cycle up, let alone to run up in an attempt to catch runaway horses. 

In 1861, according to reports in the Lancaster Gazette and Leeds Mercury, 28 year old policeman, Frederic Wood, found two stray horses grazing at the side of the road in Eastby. So he took them to the pinfold, the remains of which you can still see today, at the bottom of the hill, next to Eastby Hall. The poor man, however, had great difficulty persuading the horses to go inside. They got loose and galloped up Eastby Bank, with Frederick hot in pursuit. Somehow he managed to get hold of them both, and lead them back down to the pinfold – just as the owner, William Crossland, arrived to claim them back. 

Although technically the horses were not actually placed inside the pinfold, William was still fined a “pound breach” of 5 shillings by the Skipton magistrates. 

Sadly, today, like so many others, the Eastby Pinfold is in a poor condition. It is impossible to say how old it is, but its location on the edge of Eastby Pasture (common land), next to Eastby Hall, on the side of Bark Lane (probably the ancient road to Bolton Abbey) does imply it could be medieval in origin. 

36 year old William was a contractor at the Barden waterworks, and a year later the Leeds Mercury and Lancaster Gazette newspapers reported that he had had another confrontation with P.C. Wood, which again landed him in court, this time for assault on the constable. 

William was riding his horse at night-time “at a furious rate” narrowly missing the policeman. PC Wood claims he was subjected to abusive language and threats to run him over. The police constable warned William Crossland that he would have him summoned to court, whereupon Crossland dismounted and struck him, with additional threats to get him measured for a coffin should he be brought to court. Nevertheless, he was summoned to court, although Crossland he failed to appear. The case went ahead without him, and Crossland, who was described as a “an old offender” (and that was not a reference to his age, but to previous court appearances!), was fined a hefty 20 shillings. 

The following year a similar incident took place when PC Wood clashed with Crossland’s servant, William Hornby – this time over untied wagons, an unsafe practice that PC Wood had already dealt with before, when he took carrier, Robert Whitaker, to court for riding his waggon without reins, and not fastened together to the other two waggons which he was taking through Embsay at the same time. Despite being cautioned by the policeman, Whitaker had repeated the offence the following day, and so he was taken to court and fined 2/6d, plus court costs. 

In June 1862, it was William Hornby who was confronted by PC Wood on the road from Skipton to Embsay, for driving 2 waggons – one led by three, and another by two horses – without having them tied together, and therefore not being under his full control. Again, the defendant (following his employer’s example the previous year) refused to turn up to the hearing at Skipton Petty Sessions. The court heard that Hornby, on being requested to tie the waggons securely, had used “very abusive and violent language towards him.” Hornby was fined 40/- and costs. 

Robert Whitaker:  The newspaper report does not provide Robert’s age – there was a Robert Whittaker in the 1861 Census for Eastby who was a carter by occupation – but he was only 15 years old, the son of a grocer by the same name. By 1871 this young man had set up his own shop in Gargrave Road, Skipton, but later gave up the business to become a watch and clock “jobber”, presumably in the sense of a wholesaler, although “jobber” could also mean a piece worker. 

His father, also called Robert Whitaker, had formerly been a limestone quarryman, but set up his grocer’s shop in Eastby by 1861, when he was 57 years old. He was secretary of the Eastby Methodists. He died in 1868 and was buried at St Mary’s Church, Embsay. 

William Crossland:  In the 1861 census returns for Barden, William appears as a 39 year old from Cleckheaton. Married with 3 children, and living in one of the temporary huts on the moor, he employed 30 men at the waterworks construction site. By 1871 William Crossland, had left Eastby and had returned to his home town of Cleckheaton, where he became a maltser, now only employing 2 men. He died in 1877. 

PC Wood:  Frederick Aquilla Wood, originally from Burley-in-Wharfedale, had, according to the West Riding Constabulary Examination Books, been in the army (Rifle Brigade) for well over 2 years, before serving with the police force in Bradford for nearly 3 years, then joined the West Riding force in June 1860. He retired in 1880 and became the County Court Bailiff at Keighley, where he lived with his wife and 8 children, until he died in 1896. 

Pinfolds (also known as pounds) can be traced back to the medieval period. In an age when most fields did not have fences or walls, except for the temporary seasonal fences, it was common for livestock to stray from permitted grazing grounds. The Lord of the Manor could fine anybody who allowed their animals to stray – such animals were held in a small enclosure and could only be returned when the owner paid a fine. By the mid-19th Century, when most fields were by then enclosed, this practice was dying out. But the Eastby Pound was certainly still in use by the 1860s. 

The Eastby Pound is shown on the Tithe Map of 1847 (pictured above) as not belonging to any one person, so it was apparently for communal use. It is also shown on the 1853 Ordnance Survey Map as a Pinfold, but by the time the 1891 O.S. map was issued it was described as a sheepfold. 

(To find out the location of other pinfolds in Yorkshire see the website by Nigel Mills: www.poundsandpinfolds.co.uk.; last updated Aug 2019) 

Author: Jane Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group, July 2021