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The
Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
1
‘There is none who deeme their houses well-seated who have nott to the same belonging
a commonwealth of coneys, nor can he be deemed a good housekeeper that hath nott a
plenty of these at all times to furnish his table.’ (R Reyce, A Breviary of Suffolk 1618)
‘For much of its history, the rabbit has remained a rare and highly-prized commodity.’
(Mark Bailey, Agricultural History Review 36 P1-20)
1 Introduction
1.1 If you enter Thetford Forest Park at its southern edge, Barton Mills, and travel north
to beyond Ickburgh, you pass through a landscape which was once ‘ very barren soyle
neverthelesse very good for brede of coneys’. (Lease for Brandon Warren, 1563 PRO E
310/24/138). From the late 12th to the early 20th century, the Breckland region was
noted for its warrens, areas designated for the farming of rabbits for their meat and fur.
1.2 Many of these warrens were established and owned by the great medieval monasteries
or by the great landowners such as the Duchy of Lancaster. Lakenheath and Brandon,
for example, belonged to the Prior of Ely; Mildenhall to Bury Abbey; Wangford to Old
Warden Abbey and Santon, Snarehill and Bodney were leased to Thetford Priory by the
Duchy. By the late 15th century, most warrens were leased to professional warreners
with leases stipulating supplies to the manorial household such as that for Shouldham
Warren of 20 June 1634: ‘two hundred of good and merchantable coneys serviceable for
his own table’ had to be delivered to Sir John Hare on demand.
The Breckland Warrens, from The Marginal Economy, Mark Bailey.
2
1.3 The practice of farming rabbits in warrens had been introduced by the Normans and
Breckland was a suitable area because it has a climate similar to that of the rabbits’ native
Mediterranean: warm, dry summers and low winter rainfall.
1.4 The rabbits were a source of fresh meat in winter, but they were also a means of
making a profitable income when sold commercially, especially as they occupied land
which was generally too marginal for arable farming. They were luxury items for the
upper classes, much prized for their meat and fur. Only those with manorial rights
could own a warren and rabbits had the same exclusive protection as the pigeons in
lord’s dovecote.
Rabbits were farmed first of all on islands and coastal sites during the 12th century, with
records from Lundy, the Scilly Isles and the Isle of Wight from 1146. By 1253, rabbits
were included in the list of foodstuffs taken to the Court of Henry III at Winchester for
Christmas from warrens in Kent and Sussex. By 1300, warrens had been established on
the heathland of Breckland, running in a continuous sequence from Mildenhall north
to Brandon and then eastwards to Thetford. They occupied the higher, permanently dry
pastureland of parishes whose settlements clustered on the fen-edge or along the rivers
and they were concentrated where the greatest depth of blown sand overlaid the chalk.
Facing, top: Faden’s map of Norfolk, 1797, showing the warrens.
Facing, below: Hodskinson’s map ofSuffolk, 1783, showing the warren lodges.
3
The
Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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2 The Design and Construction of the Perimeter Warren Banks
Evidence for the dating of the banks
2.1 Since the differently-owned warrens ran side by side, they had to be separated from
one another; the rabbits prevented from escaping and vermin and poachers prevented
from entering. In the relatively flat Breckland landscape, there were few, if any, natural
features which could be utilised to do this. Man-made boundaries had to be made
instead. To date, however, evidence is inconclusive as to whether the medieval warrens
were bounded by ditches or by banks or both.
2.1.2 In the Breckland Archaeological Survey of 1996, Kate Sussams argues that it was
during the 18th and 19th centuries that the first references are seen to the formal
enclosing of warrens by banks and cites the 1701 lease for Elveden as evidence. This
states that ‘the tenant at his own cost to bank all along the Thetford Warren side to
the west end of the said borders so far in breadth from Downham Warren as have
been formerly meeted parted and dolled out . . . to the intended new bank fifty roods
and no further’ (WSROB HD/1720/19). It can equally be argued that this relates to a
‘new bank’ because an ‘old bank’ was already there. ‘New’ is a term generally applied in
comparison to ‘old’ or ‘existing’. It is also worth bearing in mind that the documentary
evidence for Elveden Warren points to its being a post-medieval creation so not relevant
in any discussion about the existence of medieval boundary banks.
2.1.3 Kate Sussams uses another example, at Mildenhall Warren in 1730 where the
adjacent landowner Daniel Gwilt complained that the rabbits were escaping ‘over
the feeble banks’ and he obtained a court order forcing the warrrener to build a bank
extending ‘from the boundaries of the parish of Little Barton alias Barton Mills South
to the Boundaries of the parish of Eriswell North’ (WSROB E3/10/9.2). Again, I would
argue that the ‘feeble banks’ were already in existence but poorly maintained and this
argument may be supported by a further clause in the above court order which states
that ‘the bank shall be kept up and maintained for the term of five years only and at
that end or expiration of the said five years if either side shall not find it serviceable or
think it proper for this Bank to be continued in repair any longer, then this agreement
shall wholly cease’.
2.1.4 At Lakenheath, there was an attempt to enclose part of the warren in 1835 and
those who held the common rights of grazing (sheep) protested that ‘ it is and has for
centuries been set out by known Metes bounds and banks’ (WSROB E3/18/11.1-2).
A 1649 terrier for Lakenheath Manor mentions ‘the lower furlong next the warren
under the bank’. Manorial accounts for Lakenheath Warren list a payment for making
‘a ditch around the new warren at the head of the village’ (CUL EDC7/15/I/8). There
is a further reference to this ditch in 1333 when three men were convicted of illegally
grazing their animals ‘in fossata de la coneger’ (CUL EDC7/15/II/Box1/9).
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Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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2.1.5 Furthermore, I would argue that to dig a ditch you need to put the spoil somewhere
and that ‘somewhere’ would by necessity be close by, making a bank. Given that the
perimeter of Lakenheath Warren, for instance, is ten miles and that of Thetford, eight
miles, any labourers digging a ditch would not have wanted to carry the spoil very far!
2.1.6 I have one piece of documentary evidence to date which suggests that the banks
were deliberately made and not just a ‘by-product’ of digging a ditch. This comes from
the Brandon Account Rolls of 1365-66 and refers to Wangford where ‘making the bank
on the east side of the grange and making a hedge on the crest of the same bank in wage
of one workman at 3d a day for 14 days’ (Rev. Munday Topographical History).
2.1.7 Another reference in the manorial accounts for Lakenheath Warren states that
2s 5d was paid in 1347-8 to ‘make a hedge at the warren’ (CUL EDC7/15/I/14) but
whether this hedge was on a bank cannot be determined.
Evidence for the design and construction of the banks
2.2.1 There are several references describing how the banks were constructed and
fortunately they collaborate each other. The banks were made of turf and were from a
metre to one and a half metres high, perpendicular on their inner sides and sloping to
about one metre wide at the bottom. Each turf or ‘sad’ or ‘clower’ was approximately
one third of a metre square (one foot) and laid in the manner of a brick wall with the
grass on the vertical face. These were topped with gorse faggots tied together, often with
willow twigs or by living gorse or thorn bushes overhanging the inner face of the bank
to try and prevent the rabbits from escaping.
Documentary references which describe the construction of the banks include:
Francis de la Rochefaucauld who writes of a warren north of Thetford with ‘ a four-foot
bank of turf sown with gorse, which forms a boundary beyond which the rabbits cannot
go.’ (A Frenchman’s Year in Suffolk 1784 trans N Scarfe 1988)
In his book Norfolk Agriculture written in the 1780s William Marshall describes ‘ a fence
made about four feet high and three feet thick, faced with green-sward and capped with
furze, so as to project eight or ten inches over the face. (Norfolk Agriculture C79 p139).
In Rural Economy of Norfolk he notes that ‘it seems to be the practice in this country
to sow furze-feed on the backs or rather upon the tops of ditch-banks . . . the furze
generally thrives abundantly’ (p182).
A bank built at Eriswell in the 19th century was made of turf stacks topped by protruding
gorse faggots against which soil was banked, dug from where the turf had been taken, to
create a solid barrier (Rev. Munday History of Eriswell ).
On Lakenheath Warren in the 1750s, the warrener enclosed 20 acres with ‘mounds and
The
Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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fences’ to ‘make a small garden for Herbs to use in his House’ and this entailed his using
‘Spades, Pickaxes and other Iron Instruments’ to ‘raise and make divers great banks
and mounds’. (History and Ecology of Lakenheath Warren Gigi Crompton). Other banks
must have been made in the same way.
The Enclosure Act for Brandon (1807 WSROB HD1964/2) states that there will be
no digging of turves except for ‘the purpose of repairing, supporting and mending the
Banks, Walls and Fences adjoining or belonging to Brandon Warren’.
2.2.2 During her work on the Breckland Archaeological Survey, Kate Sussams organised
the re-construction of a section of warren bank. Though it will not be practical to test
this construction for each and every warren bank, it is highly likely that they conformed
to this method. The design was suitable for purpose and made use of the available local
materials, thus cutting down costs of transportation as well as of labour.
Archaeological excavation of the warren bank at Downham High Warren carried out
by Kate Sussams, 1996.
2.2.3 Breckland’s only ‘building stone’ is flint and this was probably too expensive to
use for walling such long lengths. However, there is one instance of the inner face of a
warren bank being reinforced with flints, possibly to prevent burrowing by the rabbits
and this is a section of the warren bank between Thetford and Downham Warrens.
(TL82468408).
2.2.4 Professor Tom Williamson has estimated the material required to make a bank :
for a stretch of one metre, built to a height of 1.3 metres, 24 square metres of turf would
be required. (Archaeology of Rabbit Warrens Williamson p45).
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Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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A re-construction of a warren bank, organized by Kate Sussams, 1996.
2.2.5 Gigi Crompton notes that there is often a predominance of gorse or broom along
the edges of the warrens and suggests that this may be a relict of the time when the
banks were topped with gorse – possibly a good indicator of the presence of a bank, one
example being the northern perimeter bank of Elveden Warren.
The perimeter boundary banks of the warrens
2.2.6 Where two warrens were adjacent to one other, each warren appears to have had
its own bank and thus there are many examples of perimeter warren banks running
parallel, sometimes with the space between the banks used as a trackway. See also 2.2.7
below. There are double parallel banks from south of Grimes Graves which formed
the boundary between Weeting with Bromehill and Santon Warrens TL830899. Three
and at times four parallel banks mark the boundary between Sturston and Wretham
Warrens. TL 8745 9188 NHER 37049.
The track created by the parallel boundary banks of Lakenheath and Wangford Warrens
was part of the route from Lakenheath to Elveden and was used as a droveway to take
sheep to the lamb sales at Elveden (Rev Munday) .
The north eastern boundary of Sturston Warren where it abuts Stanford Warren is
double-banked with the banks about 25m apart.
Gooderstone has two parallel boundary banks but no adjacent warren so perhaps these
double banks could serve another purpose such as providing an additional barrier to
would-be escaping rabbits or for trapping them. It is hardly likely that labourers would
make a double bank if it did not have a utilitarian function, though no definitive use is
yet known.
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Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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Boundary bank at Downham High Warren (Hugh Mannall).
The existence of ‘Borders’
2.2.7 Gigi Crompton states ‘it has been shown that there was an intimate relationship
between warren management and the land on its borders ‘and that such land was
specifically known as a ‘Border’. She quotes the example of the Border in Elveden Parish
which extended along the edge of Santon Downham Warren to a depth of 50 roods to
the 100 acre Border in Eriswell which lay against Mildenhall Warren. She argues that
these Borders evolved out of necessity as a buffer zone between warrens and arable lands
but that their function changed over time as shown in documentary evidence.
In the mid 16th century the Court Leet ordered that only the Commoners could take
coneys upon ‘Le Borders’ but were prohibited from using nets. By the beginning of the
18th century the three Borders were rented out for £93 per year and enlarged to become
a 700 acre Elveden Warren, rented for £156.
The Eriswell Border covered 100 acres and was let to the warrener as part of his lease of
Chamberlain’s Farm.
At Lakenheath, the Border area lay along the Wangford boundary and appears to have
been cultivated during the Napoleonic Wars before reverting to heath. (Report of Tithe
Commissioners quoted by Gigi Crompton in Lakenheath Warren WSROB).
Further research is required to assess the existence and incidence of ‘Borders’ on the
Breckland Warrens.
Documentary evidence for the perimeters of warrens 2.2.8 Documentary evidence can help identify the perimeters of the warrens. Leases in
particular often describe the boundaries.
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Archaeology of the
Warrens of
Thetford Forest
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The lease for Langford Manor in 1476 mentions ‘the conynger at the downe and
clapperhyll and so thence unto Musdon lyng to Shakersweye’ (NRO PTR 1/123/12)
When Thetford Priory leased Bodney Warren in 1598 (NRO MC 569), its bounds were
described as ‘begynnyng at a close called fyshpondyke on the south, part of the comyn
of Bodney on to a forowe that leadeth betweene the mounts otherwyse called Copdowe
hylles and from there abutting upon the weye leading from Stanford onto Threxton
towards the south-east’. (Alan Davison Norfolk Archaeology VXLII Part 1 1994).
The lease for Methwold Warren in 1612 is very detailed in terms of identifying features
in the landscape : first beginning at Northwold Neataway als Fowldway and so from
thence east by Arteldone Hedds unto Hallmere . . . ’
When Lord Petre and George Tasburgh exchanged some land in 1791, the former
agreed to ‘put up and keep in proper repair a proper pale against rabbits on the whole of
the line which is the boundary between Bodney Warren lands and those of Petre lying
in Stanford, Buckenham, Bodney and Stanton (NRO MC67/52 513/2).
The northern boundary bank of Mildenhall Warren (Anne Mason).
In a few instances, part of a perimeter bank has a much older origin. The eastern
boundary of Methwold Warren runs along the Saxon Fossditch/Devil’s Dyke.
2.2.9 All access points to the warren (tracks and even major routes crossed the warrens)
were fitted with closely-shutting gates which were fitted with wooden sills to prevent the
rabbits from burrowing underneath. The map of 1842 of Beachamwell Warren (NRO
MC 2506/2) has drawings of these gates on it and shows that the banks on each side of
a gate were ‘turned in’. Field-walking has found evidence of this on the eastern boundary
of Beachamwell Warren.
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3 Internal banks of the Warrens
3.1. There were internal banks within the warrens. These internal banks could have
had various functions though to date there is no conclusive evidence for how they were
used.
A legal document of 1750 concerning a dispute on Lakenheath Warren lists ‘what is
commonly done on all warrens’ and includes ‘Banking making Burrows mowing The
Braks killing moles. Engines Used on the Warren in Killing the Rabbets Snaring Haying
Rounding with Nets and also Digging in Rounds For Rabbets and also raising here and
there a piece of earth to lay on the rains of the nets when wanted … and also using of
Dogs Guns Traps and other Engines as is Commonly Used To Take and Destroy the
Vermin … and also Digging with Ferrits for Rabbets.’
3.2 Banks enclosing areas of cultivation.
The warreners aimed to breed as many rabbits as possible and to produce rabbit meat
and fur of the highest possible quality. In order to achieve these aims, they had to
nurture the rabbits and ensure that they had a plentiful supply of food.
Two of the four enclosures on Lakenheath Warren (Gigi Crompton).
At Lakenheath, a Terrier of 1649 requires the warrener to ‘support and relieve the said
coneys in the time of winter with hay and all other necessary feedings’. (Rev Munday).
The ‘necessary feedings’ included Sow Thistles, Dandelions, Groundsel and Parsley and
it may be that the four rectangular earthwork enclosures on Lakenheath Warren were
used to grow such crops. Each enclosure is about 11 acres, is bounded by low banks of
no more than 2 feet high and has traces of ridge and furrow. The banks are of sand, small
flints and lumps of chalk. (Earthwork Enclosures on Lakenheath Warren, Gigi Crompton
and Christopher Taylor).
Sheail makes a passing mention of ‘a haystack placed in the middle of a warren in a small
enclosure’ during the winter months but gives no reference or location for this. (Rabbits
and their History J. Sheail p50).
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A temporary intake is recorded on Stanford Warren where ‘two pieces occasionally
broken up and sown with corn for the rabbits’ in 1771 (NRO WLS LXI/23) but banks
for these ‘pieces’ are not specifically mentioned.
3.3 Banks enclosing the lodges
There is evidence of banks enclosing small areas adjacent to the warren lodges which
may have been garths for the warrener to grow vegetables or tether his livestock (goat/
sheep for milk) at night.
The Cadogan Estate Map of 1791 for Downham (WSRO B M550/3) shows a curving
earthwork double bank enclosing ‘Lodge Field’ (where High Lodge is now sited).
Transcript of the Cadogan Estate Map, 1791 (WSOB M550/3).
The 1866 Sales Particulars for the Wangford Hall Estate include a detailed description
of the warren lodge ‘containing Bed Chamber, Rabbit House, Trap House and Skin
Chamber; Coach house with Granary over, Nag Stable for 3 Horses, Cart Horse
Stabling for 12 horses, 2 Bay Barn, Hay House, lean-to; also capital open Implement
Shed lean-to ditto, open shed and several good enclosed Farm Yards’. There is also ‘near
to the preceding a ‘warrener’s house’ which has ‘6 rooms and Turf Lodge, with Garden’.
(WSROB HD1720/17).
Brian Cushion’s survey of the Battle Area Warrens notes that the warren lodge of
Blackrabbit Warren has ‘an attached yard’.
A survey of all known warren lodge sites and of the First edition OS maps will be carried
out to determine whether these enclosures were a regular feature of the warrens.
3.4 Trapping Banks
‘Trapping Banks’ is a term which occurs on a number of maps showing individual
warrens. W G Clarke mentions ‘several large banks some thirty feet wide, said to be
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trapping banks for the rabbits’ near The Gallops on the boundary between Icklingham
and West Stow. (In Breckland Wilds W G Clarke)
3.4.1. The only description I have found of how these trapping banks were used comes
from T W Turner’s Memories of a Gamekeeper 1868-1953 on the Elveden Estate:
‘A low bank, say 2 feet high, was made as long as thought necessary. This was made
of grass sods put one on top of the other, gaps about 15 inches wide being left at not
less than 50 yard intervals to make runs through the bank. These gaps were covered
with pieces of wood, leaving a hole large enough for a hare or a rabbit to pass through.
Then more sods were placed on top of the wood to bring the gaps level with the rest
of the bank. After the rabbits had been using the holes for some time and had become
thoroughly accustomed to them, traps were set in the holes, the traps always facing the
way the rabbits would be coming from. For some nights a lot of rabbits would be taken
in this manner, but as soon as the numbers began to fall off the traps would be removed
and the whole thing repeated on fresh ground.’
Trapping banks are named on the 1807 Enclosure Map for Mildenhall (WSROB
E18/410/1) in the northeast corner of the warren.
They are named on the first map of Lakenheath Warren (1835) (WSROB E3/18/11)
in the northwest corner.
Section through the possible trapping banks on Downham High Warren, Tom Williamson
and Anne Mason, 2002.
Further research may determine whether trapping banks occur on other Breckland
warrens.
3.5 Designated breeding areas
3.5.1 Pillow Mounds are a feature of warren management which occur frequently on
warrens in other parts of the country but evidence for their existence on Breckland
warrens is inconclusive.
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Pillow Mounds on the Cotswold or Wiltshire Warrens are generally 10 to12 metres
long; 5 to 10 metres wide and 1 metre high; they are flat-topped and surrounded by a
shallow ditch.
The 1699 map of Methwold Warren (NRO MC556/1) may depict round areas of
banked earth with burrow holes in them but an earlier warren map of 1580 (NRO
T/C1/10) has these mounds looking more like Bronze Age round barrows. In both
cases, they may be an attempt to represent burrows in the ground rather than actual
mounds.
On Knettishall Heath there is a circular mound with an enclosing bank which is
interpreted as a possible pillow mound. However, there is no recorded warren here
and Knettishall was part of the Riddlesworth Estate of Sylvanus Bevan. He came from
Wiltshire where pillow mounds are more common so perhaps he was merely re-creating
a feature familiar to him from there as part of his ‘landscaping’.
There are two flat-topped circular mounds in plantations on the former Brandon Warren,
25 metres in diameter and 1 metre high which are also contenders for designation as
pillow mounds. (Suffolk SMR BRD 109; BRD 111). Beside the B1106 is a long mound
61m by 17m and 2.5m high with pines about 60 years old growing on and around it
with two smaller mounds in the vicinity, all close to Spinks Lodge (SMR BRD 082).
At West Harling, there is a long mound which Alan Davison thought might be a pillow
mound (SMR5755 TL94498341).
1699 Map of Methwold Warren (Breckland Archaeological Survey, Kate Sussams).
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3.5.2. Sheail mentions that ‘warreners often protected their breeding doe rabbits from
predators and the weather by keeping them in wooden hutches called clappers’ (Rabbits
and their History p41). He argues that there may have been topographical, regional or
even individual warreners’ preferences for clappers or for pillow mounds. Certainly, in
areas where the underlying geology makes it difficult to burrow into the ground – as on
the granite moors of the South-West or on the limestone hills of the Cotswolds – pillow
mounds are common. The rabbits of the sandy Breckland had no such difficulties so
perhaps pillow mounds were not needed. However, maps of several Breckland warrens
show an area named ‘the clapper’ separated from the rest of the warren by an internal
bank, the clapper being an area set aside for the pregnant does as a nursery.
The Methwold Map of 1699 (see above 3.5.1) is one example and ‘the Northwold
clapper’ is mentioned in the lease of 1612.
On Brandon Warren in the southeast corner where it meets Downham Warren is an area
named ‘the clapper’ (Suffolk SMR STN 040 and BRD 105).
3.5.3 It may be that in Breckland, there was a preference for ‘clappers’ rather than ‘pillow
mounds’ and more research will be done to see if this holds true and if the ‘clapper area
‘was separated by an internal bank and was sited against the perimeter boundary bank
as is the case with the examples quoted above.
3.6 Other mounds and markers
3.6.1 William Marshall describes another type of mound: ‘The way the Norfolk
warreners take to destroy eagles, kites and other birds of prey is natural and simple.
These birds are shy and suspicious; they like to settle where they can, have a clear view
round them for some distance: a naked stump or hillock is their favourite resting place.
The warreners, therefore, raise mounds of earth of a conical form in different parts of
the warren, and place traps upon the points of those artificial hillocks’. (Norfolk William
Marshall Chp 79, pp139-141).
3.6.2 Sheep also grazed the warrens and were another source of income from this
marginal land. Sheep and rabbits are mutually exclusive feeders, sheep preferring the
grey lichens and mosses avoided by the rabbits’.
3.6.3 Documentary records suggest that foldcourses were defined by stone or earth
markers though turf walls were sometimes used.
Arthur Young describes three sheepfolds at Elveden enclosed by ‘thick turf walls, 80
yards square’.
Lakenheath had a sheepfold built in 1394-5 at cost of £8 (The Marginal Economy Bailey
1989 p251)
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Bodney’s sheepcote was repaired in 1525 at a cost of 11s 4d (Register of Thetford
Priory).
The complex of earthworks at Wangford Grange and on Sturston and Stanford Warrens
may relate to sheep-farming.
The position of the perimeter boundary banks, the internal banks and the lodges was
determined by the management practices of warrening.
4 Banks other than warren banks
4.1 Clarke records ‘There are probably hundreds of miles of earthen boundary banks in
the district. Some of those on the heathland are 6 or 8 feet in height. In some instances
they mark parochial or hundred boundaries; of the remainder some perhaps marked
the lines of trackways disused a thousand years ago; and others are the boundaries of
the ancient common fields’. (In Breckland Wilds W. G. Clarke p22). Kate Sussams in
the Breckland Archaeological Survey (1996) identified parish and settlement boundaries;
pre-Parliamentary Enclosure field patterns and Enclosure field patterns as being marked
by banks.
4.2 Parish or Hundred Boundary Banks
4.2.1 The examination of Saxon charters by historians has led to the conclusion that
many parish boundaries are of early origin and may even pre-date the Saxon period.
These charters describe boundaries which were already established and stable features
in the landscape: ‘Many a parish boundary on the modern map exactly corresponds to
an Anglo-Saxon perambulation, which in turn may be interpreted as the boundary of a
Roman or Iron Age estate’ (Oliver Rackham History of the Countryside 1986 p19).
4.2.3 Parish boundaries generally follow features such as streams or rivers; hedges;
woodbanks or even the course of a Roman road. If they zigzag, it is often because of
ancient field systems. In areas such as heathland they usually run unmarked from point
to point with these points identified by a landmark. The Breckland meres are points
where parish boundaries converge, ensuring that water was widely available. At Rymer
Point, nine parishes meet and at Ringmere, six.
4.2.4 In Breckland, there are several warrens where the bank marks both the warren and
the parish boundary but there is no evidence to date as to whether the parish boundary
was already banked before the warren was set up. There are certainly many instances
where the warren boundary was probably determined by the existing parish bounds or
the Hundred boundary. A ‘Hundred’ was a Saxon administrative unit of clusters of
parishes and the same challenge arises as for the parish boundaries.
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The banks around Santon Warren also mark the parish boundary (Breckland Archaeological
Survey p K Sussams 1996) as do banks for Thetford, Gooderstone, Bromehill, Brandon
and Wangford.
Between Lackford Bridge and Thetford are sections of the Icknield Way bordered by
a substantial earthen bank which marks the boundary of the Lackford and Thetford
Hundreds.
4.3 Pre-Enclosure field boundary banks
4.3.1 Not all of what is now forestry was formerly warren; some areas, particularly near
settlements, were permanently arable and some were temporarily arable .The latter were
‘brakes ‘or ‘brecks’ where the land was cultivated for three or four years until its fertility
was exhausted and it was left to revert to heath. Field boundary banks known as ‘baulks’
or ‘meers’ may be preserved in forest plantations.
At Two Mile Bottom, Clarke notes that there is a bank known as ‘the Mayor’s Balk’
which was the ‘ancient boundary of the common fields’. (In Breckland Wilds p98).
He records a boundary bank ‘called Londmere . . . between Thetford fields and the
fields of Barnham, Elveden and Santon Downham and between the Liberty of Thetford
and the Liberty of St Edmund’. (pp111-112). He adds that ‘this bank still forms the
southern boundary of the borough of Thetford’ and quotes from a Bury Abbey Charter
‘if anyone shall be so maddened by the incitements of the devil that he determine to
alter the boundaries of St Edmund’s Liberty, or to nullify or spoil it in any way, let him
be anathematised or drowned in the fire of hell, unless he comes to his senses in this life’.
Clearly, banks were of great significance!
The boundary banks between arable and warren often present an irregular outline such
as that shown by an indented edge on the Cockley Cley Survey Map of 1722 (NRO
BL47/1).
The 1840 Tithe Map for Santon shows a linear earthwork separating arable from heath.
(SMR 31217).
A case brought before the manorial court at Icklingham in 1793 cited ploughing up the
grass ‘meer baulks’ and the court ruled that ‘all meer baulks which have been plowed up
shall be laid down again. (Elveden MS Icklingham F.30).
Encroachment of the heath and warrens was not uncommon On Methwold Warren
in 1575 a ‘newe fylde was newe plowed into the sheep course and warren’ (PRO MS E
134/35Eliz/24 East).
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4.3.2 Conversely, arable land which had been ‘worked out’ was taken into the warrens.
At Mildenhall in 1425, William Gaylon’s arable land was absorbed into the warren and
he was given 18 acres elsewhere in recompense. (WSROB E18/455/1).
4.3.3 Warren areas expanded after the Black Death, taking in land no longer occupied
or farmed. Brandon Warren took in ‘Oxwickfield’ which had been a breke/brake. Even
as late as 1784, William Smith, a tenant of Lord Walsingham, was given permission to
‘add to his present warren in Sturston 48 acres of the arable lands belonging to the farm
of the said Wm Smith adjoining to the north side of his warren bank and use the land as
a warren during the continuation of his lease.’ (NRO WLS XVII/6 410)
4.4 Post-Enclosure banks
4.4.1 The Agricultural Revolution began the process of change for the warrens. The
landscape of Breckland was transformed by the setting up of large estates and while there
were a few with a long history of ownership, such as the Merton (Lord Walsingham)
and Euston (Duke of Grafton) Estate, others were of 18th and 19th century origin.
The relative cheapness of the marginal land meant that individuals who had made
their money through trade and industry could buy out small landowners and erect
magnificent houses surrounded by planned gardens
and parkland: Mr Vincent, at Buckenham Tofts; Lyne Stephens at Lynford; Sir Payne
Galway at West Tofts and Sylvanus Bevan at Riddlesworth. In fact, it was many of these
‘great estates’ which were purchased by the Forestry Commission in whole or part in
the 1920s and 1930s: Stow, Beachamwell, Cockley Cley, Culford, Mildenhall, Feltwell,
Weeting, Didlington, East Harling, Downham, Croxton, Elveden and Lynford. The
abundance of game, notably rabbits, was an added attraction and many of these estates
became famous for their shooting and the weekend parties often included members of
the Royal Family, especially at Elveden (this estate included Eriswell, Lakenheath and
Wangford), Didlington and Merton.
In his ‘Report for the Forestry Commission’ (UEA 1984), Tom Williamson makes the
point that ‘it is important to emphasise the extent of enclosure and tree-planting in
the 18th and 19th centuries … Faden’s map of 1797 shows that large areas had already
been enclosed and an examination of the Tithe Award Maps from the 1830s and 1840s
–which show, with some accuracy, different kinds of contemporary land use – suggest
that arable was fairly extensive. Moreover, in some parishes it is theses areas of arable
land which came to be occupied by the conifers, rather than those which were then
heathland’ the Commission’s holdings are on land marked as arable fields on the 1844
Tithe Map and at Cranwich, two-thirds of the area planted was formerly permanent or
temporary arable.
The Sales Particulars for the Wangford Hall Estate in 1866 note that there are ‘about 2
550 acres being at present used as a rabbit warren .. capable of returning good interest
on outlay by planting with Larch Firs’ (WSROB HD1720/17).
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4.4.2 Land enclosed in the 18th and 19th centuries, whether originally heath or open
field, displays a strong geometric pattern of rectilinear fields and owes much to the
mapwork of surveyors.
4.4.3 Such fields were defined by hedges of Scots Pine as this species can withstand
dry conditions, is frost-resistant and has dense early growth which helps to prevent
sand blows. These pine hedges were planted on low banks surrounding the rectangular
fields.
Excellent examples survive around Canada Farm at Icklingham on the Elveden
Estate; between Cockley Cley and Gooderstone; and bordering the A1065 north of
Mundford.
Canada Farm, Icklingham 1837, showing shelter belts. (Breckland Archaeological
Survey, Kate Sussams).
David Davy in 1829 wrote: Within two miles of Brandon I observed a mode, to me
at least new, of raising a good fence in a very bad soil; a bank is thrown up, about four
or five feet high and of a considerable thickness at the bottom; upon the top of this is
planted a row of Scotch firs, as thick almost as they can stand . . .’
4.4.4 Tree planting was fashionable, made economic sense and was necessary to
stop sandblows from land which was over-grazed and ‘rabbit-sick’. Plantations were
established on warren land and enclosed by low banks such as those shown on the
4.4.5 This enclosed land, though marled to increase fertility and reduce ‘blows’ proved
to be unprofitable for arable and was often abandoned and allowed to revert to heathland
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in the Agricultural Depression of the 1870s - 1890s. Clarke makes an indirect reference
to this happening ‘When the Inkerman breck at Santon was reverting from arable back
to heath’. Such land can be identified by the field boundaries and the presence of marl
pits, even within the forest plantations. The Feltwell Estate, purchased by the Forestry
Commission in 1929, was largely heathland divided by belts of Scots Pine which marked
the edges of the abandoned fields and the same is true of Croxton.
4.4.6 Pine hedges was sometimes thickened with additional lines of pine or beech to
create game cover and coverts and again these can be found within forestry plantations
such as the pine belt on Mildenhall Warren.
Pine Shelter Belt (James Parry).
4.4.7 Some areas of heathland were retained to form ‘Poors’ Allotments’ where bracken
and heather could be cut for fuel and fodder.
4.5 Banks defining trackways
4.5.1 Breckland is crossed by four historically important routes: the Icknield Way and
the Peddars Way running north-south and Fincham Drove and Harling Drove running
east-west. A network of lesser tracks is linked to these main routes and parish boundaries
align with them too.
4.5.2 Former trackways can be revealed as raised banks in the landscape such as sections
of the Peddars Way where the ‘agger’ survives. This ‘agger’ was the actual embankment
which carried the road and was flanked by side ditches. It was built up with stones;
cambered to assist drainage and then ‘metalled’ with small stones or gravel. Aggers
could be between 8 and 50 feet across, the latter presumably for double lines of traffic.
The line of a Roman road was often followed in defining the boundaries of counties,
hundreds, parishes or fields.
4.5.3 ‘The whole of East Anglia contains numbers of disconnected fragments of all
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classes of roads…. There may be at least two systems of major and important minor
roads, one early and mainly military, the other later and entirely civil’. (Field Archaeology
in Great Britain Ordnance Survey 103).
A visible agger exists at Brettenham where it forms the western boundary of the Thorpe
Woods camping site.
Another section is visible north of the Bridgham-Brettenham road but is on private
land.
4.5.4 Earthen banks defined the trackways in many instances though the actual route
must have deviated depending on the condition of the surface and the season.
4.5.5 Clarke gives many examples of tracks with earth banks.
The Drove which is a trackway, possibly prehistoric or Roman in origin, connecting
Hockwold with Roudham as ‘bordered by low earthen banks’ and near Grimes Graves
with ‘huge earthen banks’. (In Breckland Wilds p127)
‘From Elveden to Wordwell, the way is clearly defined, banked on each side’. (In
Breckland Wilds p 112-113).
Northwick Way, from Thetford through Croxton, is a ‘well-defined track with a Scotch
Pine hedge and bank on the west and an earthen bank with a high hawthorn hedge on
the east’. (p116).
Near West Tofts, a continuation of this track has ‘an earthen bank on the west and a
high double bank on the east’ and from West Tofts to West Wretham ‘has three earthen
banks on the west side.’ (In Breckland Wilds p117).
4.5.6 There were networks of trackways on each warren linking the main lodge to the
trapping areas and to the seasonal loges. These trackways made it easier to bring the kills
back to the lodge by horse and cart. Lodges on adjoining warrens were often connected
by trackways and major roads crossed many of the warrens
The main road from King’s Lynn to Thetford crossed Methwold Warren and there were
five other roads across it
The main road from Newmarket to Thetford crossed Mildenhall Warren.
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Mildenhall Warren 1807 (WSROB E18/410/1).
Lakenheath Warren was crossed by at least five Pre-Enclosure roads.
4.6 Linear earthwork banks
4.6.1 Defensive linear earthworks generally belong to the first four hundred years of
the Anglo-Saxon period and in this area there are three such earthworks: Bitchamditch;
Fossditch and Devil’s Ditch. Their purpose is open to debate: it may have been defensive,
dividing one territory from another; symbolic, delineating a border; commercial,
controlling the movement of goods.
5 The Warren Lodges
‘The Warren Lodge is a curious building, almost on the highest part of the warren
and of great antiquity’ (In Breckland Wilds W. G. Clarke describing Thetford Warren
Lodge).
‘An ocean of sand, scarce a tree to be seen for miles or a house, except a warrener’s here
and there’ (Itinerarium Curiosum Dr William Stukeley 1724).
5.1 Each warren was managed by a warrener whose task was to nurture, protect and
trap the rabbits. He therefore needed to live ‘on-site’ and his accommodation had a
threefold purpose: living quarters; a storage space for equipment such as nets, traps and
lanterns and for the rabbit carcasses; a look-out and defence against poachers.
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Warreners near Thetford, 1905. (Thetford, A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards David
Osborne).
There are two standing warren lodges in Breckland which give a very clear idea of what
the medieval warren lodges must have been like, at Thetford and Mildenhall. Both look
like small castle keeps or Northumbrian peel towers.
5.1.2 Thetford Warren Lodge is a rectangular building of two storeys, 8.5 x 5.8 metres,
with walls to their original height and almost one metre thick at ground floor level.
They are of mortared flint rubble with brick and tile and limestone dressings. One
pointed arched doorway gives entrance to the ground floor; and there are five narrow
window slot openings. A staircase to the upper floor had an octagonal turret, as shown
in a sketch of 1740; there are four rectangular window openings, one on each elevation,
and a fine fireplace. There was a lean-to structure against the north wall and two single
storey thatched wings were added in the 19th century but destroyed by fire in 1935.
The SMR states ’As a substantial stone building in an area where stone and brick were
costly materials, it demonstrates the wealth and social standing of its builder’ (the
Cluniac Priory of St Mary in Thetford).
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Thetford Warren Lodge in 1740 (Thomas Martin’s History of Thetford?).
Thetford Warren Lodge about 1915.
(Breckland Archaeological Survey, T. Burlingham).
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5.1.3 Mildenhall Warren Lodge is a square stone building with an upper floor. Originally
it had a single entrance; at first floor level are four rectangular window openings, one on
each elevation and evidence of a fireplace. An additional door and windows were added in
the 19th century; a kitchen range inserted on the ground floor and a lean-to constructed
against the east and north walls. The walls are of flint with limestone dressings and some
of the corner stones are re-used Romanesque dressed stone. Collyweston Roofing Slates
were found during restoration in 2000.
Mildenhall Warren Lodge in the 1930s (Mildenhall Museum).
. . . and in 2002, after restoration by Friends of Thetford Forest Park.
(Forestry Commission).
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All that remains of Ickburgh Warren Lodge (Breckland Archaeological Survey,
Kate Sussams).
5.1.4 Ickburgh Warren Lodge site is a mass of tumbled masonry with the exception of a
small section of upstanding wall badly eroded.
5.1.5 A print of Methwold Lodge now in King’s Lynn Museum shows it to have been a
similar four-square defensive building and it is feasible to assume that the warren lodges
were built to a standardised plan which was ‘fit for purpose’ as well as denoting the high
and privileged manorial status attached to the ownership of a warren.
5.2 Investigation of other lodge sites is possible because they are marked on Faden’s
1797 Map of Norfolk; on Hodskinson’s 1783 Map of Suffolk and also on Bryant’s 1824
map of that county.
5.2.1 Some site visits were undertaken from 2000 -2002 and evidence was found at
Lakenheath, Eriswell, Methwold and Santon of walling sections which appeared to be
medieval in date and re-used in the existing farm buildings.
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Methwold Warren Lodge from a print dated 1808 (Lynn Museum).
Farm buildings on the site of Downham High Warren Lodge - date likely to be
1950s/1960s (Thetford Forest, K. Skipper and T. Williamson).
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5.3 Documentary Evidence
5.3.1 The existence of documentary evidence is especially important because it provides
proof of a medieval date for some of the warren lodge buildings, as well as for the
warrens themselves.
The Register of Thetford Priory, transcribed by David Dymond, is a rich source of
information, listing repairs to Thetford Warren Lodge in 1514; to Santon in 1499,
1502 and 1505 and to Snarehill in 1510 and 1537.
Lakenheath Warren was given a wooden lodge in 1365 and this was replaced by a stone
building in 1387.
Methwold Warren Lodge was roofed with 4 200 tiles in 1413, shipped from Lynn to
Hockwold and then transported by cart to the site.
Brandon’s manorial account rolls give a detailed description of the construction of the
lodge in 1382-3 (WSROB HD1720/17).
160 cartloads of stone
One man hired for 8 days digging chalk for ramming in the said lodge
Digging sand for the same lodge
5 poplar boards for making the sinkette
1 Baltic board for making one bar for closing the door
and finally
Present given to the stone masons as well as the senior carpenter, by order of
the chief steward.
5.3.2 There is documentary evidence for there being more than one lodge on at least some
of the larger warrens such as Downham; Eriswell; Hilborough; Lakenheath; Mildenhall
and Thetford. These additional lodges may have been for use during the trapping season,
generally from November to February rather than permanently occupied.
6 Warrens elsewhere in England
6.1 The earliest references to warrens in England are not to those in Breckland but to
a warren on a small island in Plymouth Sound in 1135 and one on the Scilly Isles in
1176, followed by mainland warrens at Connaught and Guildford in 1204 and 1241
respectively. Since establishing a warren was a manorial privilege and hence a status
symbol, rabbits were soon being kept in enclosures at castles, palaces and monasteries
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but such coneygarths provided supplies for the household rather than the commercial
market.
Warrens elsewhere in England (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology, Tom Williamson).
6.1.2 Particularly in the period after the Black Death, the farming of rabbits for their
meat and fur was seen as a productive use of marginal land, utilizing areas of agriculturally
poor soil, in places where the population was low or sparse and even where the high
altitude precluded other means of farming.
6.1.3 By the 16th and 17th centuries, much later than in Breckland, commercial warrens
were being set up in Ashdown Forest and Rockingham Forest; on the Mendip Hills and
the Cotswolds; on the chalk downlands of Kent, Sussex and Wessex and the Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire Wolds; on the Tabular Hills of North Yorkshire, in the Welsh Marches
and on Dartmoor.
6.1.4 However, many of these warrens were very short-lived and by 1800 the warren
lands were being enclosed and improved for pasture or cultivation, using the new
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techniques and methods of the Agricultural Revolution. In fact, the only warrens to
continue into the late 19th and early 20th centuries outside of Breckland were those on
the Tabular Hills of Yorkshire and on Dartmoor, mainly because they provided the raw
materials for industries such as hat-making.
6.2 The Warrens of Ashdown Forest
6.2.1 The warrens here were established in the 1690s, covering an area of about 4 000
acres, after the forest was partially enclosed and taken into private ownership.
6.2.2 Pillow mounds are the most notable archaeological feature of these warrens, each
being about 5 metres wide and from 50 to 100 metres long. They occur at Pippingford,
Broadstone, Hindleap, Church Hill and Twyford. A documentary reference for
Broadstone Warren states that Anthony Staples ‘put in great flocks of sheep and set up
many warren and made large burries for coneys within the same’ in 1690-91.
6.2.3 ‘Warren Houses’ were built but in appearance looked more like prosperous
farmhouses rather than the lodges of Breckland.
6.3 The Warrens of the Mendips
6.3.1 Warrens such as Dolebury, Charterhouse, West Cranmore and Shute Shelve were
established on open common land in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and often
utilized the earthworks of Iron Age hillforts. A few were still operational in the 18th
century, such as Rowberrow, rented out at £65.00 per year in the 1790s.
6.3.2 Drystone walls 1.5 to 2.5 metres high made the boundaries of these warrens but
only a single perimeter wall was necessary, in contrast to the double-banked Breckland
boundaries. This was probably because stone-walling made a more effective barrier than
earthen banks or because the Mendips warrens were not adjacent. However, just as the
gorse capping in Breckland overhung the banks, here too the walls were topped with
overhanging coping.
6.4 The Warrens of the Cotswolds
6.4.1 These were also 16th and 17th century creations, supplying the growing Bristol
markets.
6.4.2 They were characterized by drystone walls and large groups of pillow mounds.
In fact, the warren on Minchinhampton Common has the largest surviving group of
pillow mounds in England, both rectangular and circular.
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6.4.3 The warren lodge at the centre of the common is now a pub (just like the lodge of
Red Lodge Warren at Freckenham in Breckland).
The former warren lodge at Minchinhampton Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom
Williamson.
6.5 The Warrens of the Chalk Downlands of Sussex and Wessex
6.5.1 Here, the warrens are almost all post-medieval in date with the exception of two
Wiltshire warrens set up in the 15th century. The general expansion in the 16th century
was to meet demand from the expanding towns nearby and from London. The warrens
were an economic use of the steep slopes and thin soil of the chalk downland and, as in
the Mendips, often utilized the earthworks of former hillforts.
6.5.2 These Downland Warrens were bounded by turf banks or by fences (though these
were more costly) and they had lodges which were similar in construction and design to
the local farm buildings.
6.5.3 Compared to the Breckland warrens, these were small in acreage. Easton Royal
(1608) and Durley (1624) were each 150 acres; Hippescombe (1628) was 160.
6.5.4 As on some of the Breckland Warrens, sheep shared the grazing with the rabbits
and the same practice of folding the sheep on the arable at night, to manure it, was
carried out.
6.5.5 However, these warrens were short-lived as rising grain prices and new farming
techniques made them redundant. By 1678, Danebury was ‘anciently and till since
the memory of man a warren.’and in 1710, Hippescombe was described as ‘sometime
stocked with conies’ (Cunliffe 1983, 184).
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6.6 The Warrens of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds
6.6.1 On the whole, these are characterized by the short number of years in which they
were operational as they were not established until the late 17th and early 18th centuries
and were in decline by the 1850s. One known exception is Brumby Warren which was
a commercial enterprise by 1568.
6.6.2 The three great adjacent warrens of Cottam, Cowlam and Croom date from 1737,
1743 and 1744 respectively but by 1880 the land ‘ploughed, marled and manured made
more per acre than it could as a rabbit warren’ (Beastall 1978). Eastburn Warren near
Driffield was enclosed with hawthorn hedges in 1849 and farm buildings replaced the
warren house.
6.6.3 The acreage of some of these warrens was larger than those in Breckland, with
several approaching 1,000 acres and with stocks of up to 6 rabbits an acre. They
specialized in black or silver-grey rabbits and indeed it was from Lincolnshire that the
latter were introduced onto Thetford Warren in the 1800s. They supplied the markets
of York and Hull and sent skins to furriers at Stanford Bridge and Malton in Yorkshire
and to Brigg in Lincolnshire.
6.6.4 Where the warrens were enclosed (and some remained as open common), sod
earthen walls were used, capped with gorse and with wooden stakes called ‘kidds’ at one
metre intervals to reinforce the structure but these were recorded as being very expensive
and needing constant maintenance.
6.6.5 No archaeological or documentary evidence has been found for pillow mounds
but there is evidence for trapping banks.
There is, in fact, striking similarities between the trapping banks here and in Breckland.
The banks were constructed parallel to a section of the perimeter bank, with holes
spaced regularly along them. These trapping banks converged with the perimeter bank
at one end and the other was closed off by a rabbit-proof gate. The space was baited with
food; the rabbits accessed through the holes which were then blocked and the rabbits
netted at the convergent end.
This method could explain the arrangement of the trapping banks at High Lodge where
two of the four trapping banks converge at one point. Up to now, no clear explanation
exists as to how the banks at High Lodge might have functioned.
6.6.6 Tip Traps were also used to catch rabbits on the warrens of the Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire Wolds. From documentary evidence, we know that they were placed in
small, turf-walled enclosures about 4 metres square.
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Tip Trap on Wood Hall Warren, Carperby (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom
Williamson).
6.6.7 Despite there being up to 43 warrens on the Wolds, there are virtually no
archaeological remains as all traces have been obliterated by the machinery of agricultural
improvement.
6.7 The Warrens of the Tabular Hills
6.7.1 The Tabular Hills are the low limestone ridge stretching across the southern edge
of the North York Moors and the warrens occupied the areas where there were alternate
bands of limestone and sandy grit. Here too they were only set up in the late 17th and
early 18th centuries as areas of common pasture were enclosed, but by the 19th there
were 15 warrens on 6000 acres. They were able to sustain 2 to 6 rabbits per acre but only
if supplementary fodder was grown. Nevertheless, they supplied the markets of York,
Scarborough, Malton and Whitby with up to 54 000 rabbits a year and sent skins to the
hat-making industries in Manchester and London.
6.7.2 The boundaries of 12 warrens are traceable. Several have the Dalby Beck as their
western boundary such as Driffieldgreet Warren, though a paling fence reinforced this
natural limit (Rabbits and their History Sheail 1971 p47). Otherwise, a combination of
earthen turf walls, capped with gorse or heather, and stone walls was used, with the turf
on the more level ground and the stone walls on the steeper valley sides. There is at least
one instance of an earlier earthwork being used as a boundary, echoing the use of Saxon
earthwork banks at Methwold and Beachamwell. Sprainton Dyke had an extra turf wall
built on its crest which was the boundary of High Scamridge Warren.
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6.7.3 Some of the walls, both turf and stone, survive to a height of 1.3 metres but
it is the tip traps- 19 on High Dalby Warren alone – which are the most important
archaeological feature, often concealed within Forestry Commission plantations. The
traps are circular pits, one metre deep and one metre in diameter, lined with drystone
walling and sloping outwards from the base. They were placed adjacent to the perimeter
banks or within walled enclosures of 5 to 6 metres square.
6.7.4 There are only three pillow mounds as yet recorded, on Hutton Nabb, Spaunton
Moor and Lewisham Moor.
6.7.5 Because the rabbits were sold immediately to middlemen, there was no need to
provide storage on site for skins and carcasses, as in Breckland, so the warren buildings
were essentially dwelling places and in appearance look like the vernacular farmhouses.
Adjacent warrens in the Tabular Hills (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom
Williamson).
6.8 The Warrens of Dartmoor
6.8.1 The warrens on Dartmoor have been the subject of extensive research and are
important for their concentrations of pillow mounds. The warrens, at least 17 number,
cluster round the edge of the moorland and most include the more sheltered ground of
the valleys. These warrens are similar to those in Breckland in that several lie adjacent,
covering an extensive area (8 sq km); they have lodges and most continued to be worked
well into the 20th century, supplying the markets in Birmingham, Plymouth and
Sheffield.
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6.8.2 However, only two of these Dartmoor warrens may have medieval origins:
Trowlesworthy around 1292 and Ditsworthy. Recorded dates for the others are post-
medieval: Vaghill’s lease is 1613 and a 16th or 17th century foundation is likely for
Headland, Hentor, Legis Tor, Sheepstor and Willings Walls Warrens. Even later are the
19th century warrens of Huntingdon and Beardown (1808) and those of Merrivale,
New House, Skaigh, Wiseman’s Wood and Yalland.
6.8.3 These Dartmoor warrens were bounded partly by dry-stone walls, as would be
expected in this granite area. Significant sections of their boundaries were formed by
streams such as the Plym; the Blackabrook; the River Coswic and the Devonport Leat.
Warrens on remote moorland had only isolated boundary stones, possibly because the
rabbits preferred to remain where they were fed rather than to stray onto the hostile
terrain.
6.8.4 Unlike the lodges of Breckland which occupied the highest point of the warren,
the lodges on Dartmoor were positioned in sheltered locations and therefore did not
have wide views over all the warren. The lodges of the 17th century warrens are based
on the traditional thatched longhouses of the region and only the inhabited Headland
lodge of this date is not ruinous. The later lodges were more like farmhouses and some,
such as Ditsworthy, were built of stone with slate roofs.
6.8.5 There is evidence on some of the Breckland warrens for enclosures close to
or behind the lodges, presumably for vegetable plots for the warrener and there are
enclosures attached to the Dartmoor lodges too though with stone walls instead of
turf. Some of these are recorded as fodder enclosures but others post-date the warren.
Ditsworthy Lodge is known to have had a garden and yards with walls as high as 1.7m
and even a dogyard, three kennels and out-buildings for storing fodder.
Pillow Mounds on Dartmoor (The Archaeology of Rabbit Warrens Tom Williamson).
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6.8.6 The most remarkable features of the Dartmoor Warrens are the pillow mounds
and the vermin traps. The former are up to 2 metres in height, and between 25 and 35
metres long; high-backed and surrounded by ditches as the soil could easily become
waterlogged. There are over 180 on the 5 warrens in the Plym Valley; 50 on Beardown
and 80 on Huntingdon Warren. Many had artifical burrows dug into them and
probably housed most of the rabbit population as otherwise they were at the mercy of
the hostile moorland environment. These mounds were known locally as ‘buries’ and
needed careful maintenance.
6.8.7 The design of the vermin traps is quite sophisticated. They were made with 5 large
stones, one forming the rectangular base; three the uprights and one the capping of a
tunnel which had openings at either end and in the middle. Flat slates were lowered
or raised at either end, in grooves in the stones and there were small upright posts
connected by wires to them. When predators such as stoats or weasels ran into the
tunnel, they triggered the wires which allowed the slates to fall and block escape. The
traps were linked to low walls of stone and earth, about 0.5 m in height and arranged
in V shapes, which acted as funnels to encourage the predators toward the trap placed
at the centre.
Vermin Trap on Dartmoor (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom Williamson).
6.8.8 The remains of many of these traps survive but only on the pre-19th century
warrens, probably because they were unnecessary on the later warrens as gin traps and
shotguns became more widely used.
6.8.9 Similar traps, but made of wood, were used on the Hertfordshire warrens and
the funnel features also occur on Minchinhampton Warren; Dolebury and Worlebury
Warrens (Somerset); and Avebury (Wiltshire).
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7 Lodges on warrens other than those described above
Since the Breckland warrens are the only ones with generally medieval foundations,
it is in Breckland that the largest concentration of medieval lodge sites can be found.
There are however, isolated examples of lodges elsewhere that date from the 14th or
15th centuries.
Norton Tower in Rylstone in Yorkshire, built in the late 15th century in the centre of a
deer park, was surrounded by pillow mounds so probably functioned as the warrener’s
lodge. It was 10m by 15 m in area but was reduced to a single storey in 1569.
Dorking Warren’s lodge was rebuilt in the 1380s (at the same time as Brandon’s) but as
a timber-framed structure with a roof of re-used Horsham stone brought from Reigate
Castle.
The pub suitably called ‘Old Lodge Inn’ on Minchinhampton Common has a tall
central section which was probably the tower-like warrener’s lodge and dates from the
17th century.
Warren Cottage (1680s) in Hatfield Forest is a tall building with a single room on each
floor and 9m by 4m in size. (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom Williamson).
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The strangest warren lodge must be that built by Sir Thomas Tresham in the 1590s at
Rushton, Northamptonshire. He was a Catholic recusant and the building is three-sided,
with all its features in threes, to symbolize the Trinity, but nevertheless is tower-like
and there was space in the half-basement for storing carcasses and equipment and it is
referred to in estate accounts as ‘Warryners Lodge’. (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology
Tom Williamson).
As noted above, the lodges on the Dartmoor warrens were very similar to the vernacular
longhouses and farmhouses and the same is true of the lodges on the warrens in the Welsh
Marches. These were small rectangular buildings of the type common on the seasonally
occupied upland farmsteads. (Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology Tom Williamson).
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Conclusion
All archaeological earthworks are a finite resource which can contribute to our knowledge
of the history of the landscape and how it was used in the past. They are also part
of our cultural heritage and may be associated with the memories and beliefs, work
practices and economic and social structures of former communities. All this is true of
the earthworks of the Breckland warrens.
The perimeter banks of most warrens can be traced from surviving maps and leases.
Such maps, including the First Edition Ordnance Survey Maps, also show internal
banks and the sites of the warren lodges, often within their own enclosures and with
wells close by.
This knowledge means that confusion with other banks - field boundary banks and
banks surrounding plantations - is less likely. Furthermore, detailed descriptions of
the construction and dimensions of the perimeter banks and ditches have survived, so
that any bank of more than 1 metre high and 0.75m wide at the base, in an area of a
known warren, has a fair chance of being part of the perimeter bank system and with
the function of a parish boundary bank in addition.
Internally, three or four parallel banks may be trapping banks and these are generally
about 0.75 to 1 metre high with gaps in them at 40/50 metre intervals (though these gaps
may be obscured by vegetation). There is less evidence of the size of internal enclosure
banks but up to 0.75m is suggested by those which survive on Lakenheath Warren.
Field boundary banks and those which surrounded pre-Forestry Commission
plantations are generally less than 0.3m height. Post-Enclosure field boundaries reflect
the agricultural changes of that period and are generally straight.
The broad ridges that denote the routes of former roadways are also mostly straight and
in many cases are of medieval origin.
An examination of the archaeological remains and the historical documentation of
concentrations of warrens elsewhere in Britain has enabled comparisons to be made
with the Breckland warrens. Of the five main warrening areas outside Breckland, only
two areas contain warrens with a proven late medieval date: the Wolds (Brumby 1598)
and Dartmoor (Trowlesworthy and Ditsworthy 1292). In Breckland, all but two of the
warrens have a documented medieval origin.
The warrens outside Breckland were generally established from the 1600s onwards;
were run as commercial enterprises for a comparatively short period and by the late 18th
or early 19th centuries were being turned over to arable cultivation. The boundaries of
the warrens in these other areas reflected the topography and geology of the locality. The
Cotswold and Dartmoor Warrens were bounded by drystone walls; those on the Tabular
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Hills by a combination of drystone and turf walls and those on the Chalk Downlands
had turf banks or fences.
Because so few of these warrens are of medieval origin, there are no medieval lodges to
match those in Breckland. The warren lodges or ‘warren houses’ that do survive could
be mistaken for farmhouses, in great contrast to the ‘castle keep’ appearance of Thetford
and Mildenhall Warren Lodges.
The warrens outside Breckland do, of course, contain features which are archaeologically
very significant and with which the Breckland warrens cannot compare. The Cotswold
warrens, especially the warren on Minchinhampton Common, have the largest
concentration of pillow mounds in the country and tip traps were a feature of the
Yorkshire warrens.
However, this study has shown that the Breckland warrens can justifiably be classed
as unique in Britain. No other area has such a concentration of medieval warrens
with the added significance of most being owned or leased to monastic institutions.
Undoubtedly because of this ownership, extensive documentation survives which gives
not only foundation dates for the warrens and many of the lodges but also knowledge
of management practices.
No other warren area has such a complex and concentrated surviving system of perimeter
banks constructed exclusively of turf. Some historians and archaeologists have argued
that the banks are post-medieval in origin, with the warrens as open areas or bounded
by ditches in the medieval period, but whatever their date, the perimeter banks are a
unique feature of the Breckland landscape.
No other area has medieval warren lodges as standing buildings nor such comprehensive
documentary evidence detailing the materials and construction of these lodges.
Moreover, many the lodge sites in Breckland have a history of continuous occupation
over seven centuries, with post-enclosure farmsteads being established on their sites and
making use of their building materials.
This study has shown that the Forestry Commission has a highly significant and
historically valuable archaeological resource in the remains of the warren banks, both
internal and external, and the sites of the warren lodges. However, awareness of this
archaeology is largely confined to regional professional archaeologists and historians
and most visitors to Thetford Forest Park are unaware of its past history. While
preservation and protection of the warren banks must remain the highest priority, the
Forestry Commission should consider raising awareness of the history and archaeology
of warrening and so increase public understanding and appreciation of an archaeological
legacy which is unsurpassed in landscape history.
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Thetford Forest
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Abbreviations
NRO Norfolk Record Office
PRO Public Record Office
SMR Sites and Monuments Record
WSROB West Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds
All primary sources are referenced in the text, with the exception of any listed above.
