The pound is a rectangular stone structure, built of dry-laid fieldstone, with an opening near the northeast corner.

The opening was originally topped by a long granite lintel, which now lies on the ground inside the enclosure, and would have been closed off by an iron gate.

[2] Since early colonial days, most New England communities used animal pounds as a means to pen in stray livestock until it could be recovered by its owner.

The land on which it was located belonged to the Cotton family, who owned Bradbury Mountain and the surrounding area, and whose house stood nearby until it burned down in 1929.

The pound was used until 1891, by which time changes in technology (mainly the advent of barbed wire) and a reduction in farming had rendered it obsolete.