Town Pound

Is located at the corner of Route 108 and Durham Point Road. The present structure was built on exposed bedrock in 1808 and replaced an earlier structure built in 1709. It is constructed of quarried granite surface ledge. Three blocks around the gate have round quarry holes (5/8” diameter, spaced 4-5” apart), the byproduct of the plug & feather method (commercial version). A number of blocks have trapezoid shaped hand cut flat wedge quarry holes. A splitting method similar in concept to the plug & feather but using flat metal wedges instead of half-rounds metal pieces. Not all of the blocks have quarry marks on them. The pound was built using some type of lifting apparatus as evidenced by the presence of  “dog-holes” (5/8” dia. round hole, about 1/2 inch deep). A single dog hole was drilled on each side of the block, a metal hook inserted into the hole and a chain run between the hooks. As the chain was hoisted upward, it pulled the hooks tightly together allowing the block to be lifted. Several blocks have more than one dog-hole per side, indicating the workman misjudged the proper balance point for lifting the block with the first set of holes. Dog holes are found on blocks on the bottom, middle, and top sections of wall. The pound is 25 x 40 feet in size.

New England Town Pounds

Town pounds have their origin in England and Europe. Towns built a pen in central areas to hold stray animals that got loose from one household so that they couldn’t damage the crops of other members of the community. These structures usually consisted of four low walls either of fieldstone or of rough-cut granite. In order to reclaim the pig or cow in question, the owner would have to pay compensation for whatever damage the animal had done to neighbors’ gardens.

In July 1828, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a series of bills detailing the operations of Town Pounds. The bills spell out the duties of the Pound Keeper and detail the required forms pertaining to the notification to the owners of impounded animal, the appraisals and dispositions thereof. Included are a set of fees the Pound Keeper can charge for the service and swearing to of forms by Town Officials and Justices of the Peace. These can be found online at Google Books by searching “The New-Hampshire Town Officer”.