Skip to content

← Back to the directory · Dartmoor Map

Antiquities

Willsworthy Pound adjacent to Willsworthy Bridge

Devon

Willsworthy Pound is a scheduled monument standing beside Willsworthy Bridge on Dartmoor's northern slopes. It is a livestock pound, a small enclosed space built to hold stray animals or those taken in payment of debts or fines. Such pounds are characteristic of medieval moorland communities, where managing grazing rights and livestock ownership was essential to survival.

Today the pound survives as an earthwork and stone structure in the landscape, a practical reminder of how the moor was used and governed centuries ago. Its position near the bridge suggests it served the local area and the routes crossing the moor. Walking this part of Dartmoor, you can still read the working moorland in such features.

Explore further

Recommended online resources for heritage sites on Dartmoor:

Photo: Guy Wareham (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Kind words

Be the first to leave kind words for Willsworthy Pound adjacent to Willsworthy Bridge.

Leave kind words

Run a Dartmoor business, group or service like this one? Add yours to the directory, it is free.

Suggest a listing