Pinfold Traditional Cache
Pigling: This cache has run its time and needs to make way for another cache I have placed nearby but which cannot be published because of the proximity of "Pinfold". Salve atque vale!
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This can be an easy drive by cache or a convenient place to picnic. The pinfold was cleared and a picnic table was placed here, for the use of visitors, by the villagers of Airton as part of their Millennium celebrations. There is room for parking by the village green. The word ‘Pinfold’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon pund, and fold, i.e. a pound and enclosure. These small enclosures, usually rectangular in shape, surrounded by high stone walls, entered through a gate wide enough to admit a single beast and often containing a little building to serve as a cowshed and stable for stray cattle and horses were once a common sight in Dales‘ villages. The importance of the pinfold diminished over the centuries until many were neglected and fell to rubble. A pinfold that remains intact is an interesting piece of history. Although the pinfold, in Airton, conforms to the description above, I am reliably informed that the Airton Pinfold has not been used in this way for well over a hundred years & this fact has probably preserved it for posterity. In the small stone shed is a water pump and sheep brought down from the ‘tops’ were watered here from the stone trough which still remains, though not in its original location, before being driven on to Bell Busk station. The pump belonged to the farm opposite, built by prominent Quaker William Vipoint and bearing a date stone of 1666, the year of The Great Fire of London. From this cache can also be seen the 17th century squatter’s cottage on the green. In those days a person who could build a house on common land within 24 hours could claim squatters’ rights for as long as he occupied it. A wooden hut with a turf roof would have been hastily constructed, often with the help of relatives. When rights had been established and acknowledged a stone building would be built outside the hut and, when nearly finished, the original hut would be pulled down and removed through the doorway of the new, stone building, thus ensuring continuity of occupation! Beyond the squatters’ cottage is the house of William & Ann Ellis, two pioneers of the Quaker movement and opposite that is a Quaker Meeting House, still used. Airton was, essentially, a Quaker village. Below these important buildings is the old water mill, now converted into apartments but still displaying above the roof the bell which called the villagers to work. This cache is one of seven to be visited to gather co-ordinates for A Malhamdale Meander Challenge multi cache. Part of the co-ordinates for that cache are fixed to the bottom of this cache. As this cache is in a public place and so vulnerable to accidental discovery, please search stealthily & replace it surreptitiously!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abg uvqqra, nqwnprag gb gur tngr!