Glossary · History
Pound house
Also written pound-house, cider house (building sense). Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The farm building in which apples were pounded, pressed and fermented — the West Country name for the cider house, from the old verb to pound, meaning to mill.
- Subject
- History
- Also written
- pound-house, cider house (building sense)
In more detail
A pound house typically held the stone mill, the press, and the casks, and was often built into a hillside so that fruit could be tipped in at the upper level and juice run down to the vessels below. Many survive as barns and garages, identifiable by a stone chase in the yard outside.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Milling and pressing
Pounding
The old West Country word for milling fruit, from the days when apples were beaten or ground to pulp rather than torn by a scratter. It survives in the name of the building where it happened, the pound house.
Equipment
Stone mill
The pre-industrial cider mill: a circular stone trough, the chase, in which an upright stone wheel was drawn round by a horse to crush fruit against the trough.
Cider
Cider house
A building or licensed premises where cider is made or sold. In the West Country it meant the farm’s making and storage building; in modern usage it usually means a bar specialising in cider.
Cider
Farmhouse cider
Cider made on the farm that grew the fruit, traditionally in small volumes for the farm’s own use and local sale, and by extension any cider made in that manner.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Somerset Rural Life Museum — cider collections
South West Heritage Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24