Thetford Warren Lodge

Summary

A warrener’s lodge, considered to have been built around 1400, extended in the C18 and C19, burnt out and abandoned in 1935.

Reasons for Designation

Thetford Warren Lodge, a warrener’s house built around 1400 by the Priory of St Mary, Thetford, with later alterations and additions, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as both a rare and the best surving example of a medieval warrener's house in England which retains many of its original features;

* its defensive character, which includes features such as narrow slit windows, a 'murder' hole and evidence for draw bars on the door, reflects the need for the Prior to protect the warren, and his rights within it, from encroachment by the less privileged and possibly resentful population of the area;

* its form as a substantial stone building not only displays a high level of craftsmanship in its construction but demonstrates, in an area where stone and brick were costly building materials in the medieval period, the wealth and social standing of the Priory of St Mary.

Historic interest:

* it provides evidence of the social and economic standing and development of ecclesiastical and secular estates in the medieval and post-medieval periods.

History

Warrens were an area of land set aside for the breeding and management of rabbits (or ‘coneys’) in order to provide a constant supply of fresh meat and skins. The practice of rearing rabbits was introduced to southern England by the Normans in around 1100 and soon spread to almost every part of the country. As only those with manorial rights could own a warren, early examples were mostly associated with the higher levels of society. The earliest written source is a grant of land to Plympton Priory, cum cuniculi (with rabbits), in 1135 and Henry III established one of the first mainland warrens at Guildford in 1235. However, they gradually spread in popularity, with the C14 and C15 seeing a broader adoption of warrens, including some substantial enterprises by religious houses, and by the C16 and C17 they were a common feature on most manors and estates throughout the country. Warrens continued in use until fairly recent times, finally declining in the face of C19 and C20 changes in agricultural practice, and the onset of myxomatosis in 1954.

Warrens in the Norfolk and Suffolk Brecklands, of which 26 have been identified by the Breckland Society as part of a research project undertaken between 2008 and 2010 (see Sources), lie within an area north from Barton Mills to Brandon and then east to Thetford. The earliest were established from the late C12 by monastic houses or wealthy landowners.

Experiencing a climate not too dissimilar to that of the rabbits’ native Mediterranean, namely warm, dry summers and low rainfall in winter, the Breckland warrens occupied the higher, permanently dry pastureland of parishes whose settlements clustered along the natural boundary between heathland and fen, or along rivers. To contain and protect the stock, and limit predation and poaching, the warrens were enclosed by banks made of turves which measured up to 10m high and 2m wide and were vertical on their inner faces and sloped on their outer faces. Each turf, also called a ‘sad’ or ‘clower’, were laid in the manner of a brick wall with the grass on the outer face. Once constructed, the banks were either topped with bundles of gorse twigs or planted with gorse or thorn bushes, to try and prevent the rabbits from escaping. If two warrens were placed side-by-side, such as Thetford and Santon Downham Warrens, each had its own bank with the space between used as a trackway known as a border. Some of the banks, including those at Brandon, Broomhill/Weeting, Santon, Thetford and Wangford Warrens, were also used to delineate parish boundaries. Within the warren itself, further banks were constructed to serve particular functions. Since the warreners aimed to breed as many rabbits as possible and to produce rabbit meat and fur of the highest possible quality, internal enclosures on some of the warrens may have been used to grow crops to provide additional feed for the rabbits, while enclosures known as ‘the clapper’ were used for segregating the breeding does. Linear banks with funnelled ends, known as trapping banks, were also constructed parallel to the warren banks to ensnare rabbits for selective culling. Larger warrens were also associated with a lodge. As well as providing living accommodation for the warrener they were also used to store trapping equipment and carcasses and act as a lookout and defence against poachers.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1541), the Breckland warrens passed to lay landowners, often as part of an estate purchased as monastic lands were sold off. However, they mostly continued to function as working warrens until the late-C18, sustaining two fur-processing factories at Brandon and short-lived premises in Thetford and Swaffham. The annual cull on many of the warrens during the C18 ran to over 20,000 animals, with the meat being sent up to London and to the Cambridge colleges, as well as to markets locally. The fur was despatched to Luton, for use in the hat industry, but also to Europe and as far afield as South America. Lakenheath was one of the last working warrens and survived until 1940. The best-preserved Breckland warrens now lie within Thetford Forest which, now covering an area of some 47,000 acres, was established from 1922 to sustain the nation’s dwindling supply of timber resource after the First World War.

Thetford Warren Lodge, originally known as Westwick Warren Lodge, it formerly being part of the medieval manor of Westwick in Thetford, is generally considered to have been built around 1400 by the Cluniac Priory of St Mary, Thetford: the prior having the right of free warren, a licence from the king to hunt small game. It was constructed with two floors, each with a single room, connected by a staircase in the south-west corner. The upper floor was used as accommodation for the warrener, the lower floor provided storage for carcasses, skins and equipment. The Priory’s accounts record £1 9s 9d ‘pro reparac fact at Westwyk logge’, paid in 1514-15 to the mason John Dalton. The high-status character of the building, particularly its well-appointed upper chamber, with a large and well-built fireplace on the rear wall and a garderobe in a corner, suggests that it may have also served as a hunting retreat for the prior and his friends. After the Dissolution of the priory in 1540, the monastic lands were granted to the Duke of Norfolk who had been its patron. In the post-medieval period, until the early years of the C20, the area surrounding the lodge was one of the most productive rabbit warrens in the Brecklands. From 1837 it specialised in the breeding of silver-grey rabbits and the annual average cull reached a peak of 28,000.

A sketch of the lodge drawn in 1740 by Thomas Martin, a local antiquarian, depicts the building with a thatched roof and a polygonal turret rising above the parapet over the staircase in the south-west corner. The drawing also shows a two-storey addition on the south-west side and a lean-to on the north-east side. At a later date, probably in the C19, the additions were removed and replaced with single-storey wings; the south-west wing probably comprised two warrener's cottages and the north-east wing additional storage space. A further addition of unknown function was placed at the rear. On 8 August 1935, a nearby grassland fire quickly spread to the lodge and destroyed its thatched roof and the later additions. It was subsequently repaired and re-roofed by the Ministry of Works in 1949.

Details

A warrener’s lodge, considered to have been built around 1400, extended in the C18 and C19, burnt out and abandoned in 1935.

MATERIALS: the walls, which stand for the most part to almost their full original height and are up to 1m thick at ground floor level, are constructed of mortared flint rubble with some brick and tile and with limestone dressings, possibly including reused architectural fragments of C12 type. The floor of the upper storey no longer survives, although its level is marked by an offset on the interior face of the walls. The flat roof, with skylight, dates to the late C20.

PLAN: the lodge is a rectangular building of two storeys measuring around 8.5m north-north-east to south-south-west by 5.8m transversely.

EXTERIOR: the principal south-eastern elevation has a door opening with a pointed arch and brick vault at the left-hand side. The internal and external stone surrounds of the entrance have been removed except for the base of the jambs on the north side. Slots lined with tile in the thickness of the wall to either side of the opening are thought to be for drawbars to secure the entrance. The south-east corner of the building, which forms the external wall of the stair, shows evidence of rebuilding, probably following a collapse, the repair being clearly marked by the inclusion of random ashlar and brick in the fabric. Later brickwork has also replaced a small section of original fabric to the lower courses at the northern end.

The ground floor was lit by five narrow window slots: one in the south-east wall to the north of the entrance, one centrally placed in each end wall and two in the north-west wall, to either side of the chimney. At first floor level there are four wider, rectangular window openings, one in each wall. All the embrasures are widely splayed internally. Where the external stone dressings of the windows remain intact, the jambs are of reused masonry with a double bevel, and where the stone has been removed, in the east window on the upper floor and all except the north window on the ground floor, the impressions remain visible in the surrounding mortar.
Above the ground floor and below the level of the upper chamber, two small, rectangular openings were inserted in the east and west walls to light an intermediate floor. These alterations were probably carried out at some time after 1740, since the inserted openings are not shown in the sketch of the lodge as it was at that date.

The sketch indicates that there was then a small lean-to structure against the north wall and another small shed to the west of it. Two single storey thatched wings were subsequently added and a communicating door inserted in the south-east wall of the original building. These additions were demolished after a fire in 1935, but are recorded in a photograph of about 1900. The outline of their roofs is marked by differences in colour on the external faces of the north and south walls, and the blocked opening of the inserted door is also visible in the south wall. The remains of slates bonded into the fabric of the west wall outline the pitch of the roof of another adjoining structure of unknown date.

INTERIOR: the lower apartment has a floor of worn brick. On the north-west wall are the remains of a large fireplace, and to the south of the entrance, in the south-western internal angle, is an obliquely set, narrow doorway with pointed arch and stone jambs opening onto a newel (spiral) stair which leads to a similar doorway on the first floor. The stair was originally crowned with an octagonal turret which projected above the level of the roof of the building. This no longer survives but was still standing in the early C18, as shown in a sketch of the building dated to 1740.

The most prominent feature of the upper apartment is a large fireplace in the north-west wall, which is finely built of brick with ashlar jambs and moulded brick base. To the south of this is the western window opening, and in the south western angle, opposite the entrance to the stair, is the narrow, arched doorway to a garderobe (latrine) in the thickness of the wall. A rebate for the door can be seen in the stone surround. In the north-west wall behind the garderobe is a large inserted opening, and below this, in the outer face of the wall, is a narrow breach through which the circular garderobe shaft can be seen. In the south-east wall, above the doorway on the ground floor, there is a rectangular opening with stone jambs giving onto a recess in the thickness of the wall, with a quatrefoil light to the exterior. A rectangular slot in the floor of this recess, opening onto the vault of the doorway below is interpreted as a ‘murder hole’ (through which missiles could be dropped on anyone attempting to force an entrance).

The interior of the building shows evidence of alteration including the subdivision of the northern end of the ground floor to create two small, additional rooms, one above the other. The partition walls do not survive, but the floor at this end, to the north of the fireplace, has been lowered and the interior face of the lower walls has been cut back by about 0.45m, truncating the splay of the northern window embrasure and leaving impressions in the mortar where flints have been removed.

Thetford Warren Lodge is also a scheduled monument (National Heritage List for England 1014778).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

384668

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
The Breckland Society, ‘Warrens of Breckland: A Survey by the Breckland Society’ (2010), accessed 31 March 2023 from www.brecsoc.org.uk/breckland_warrens%20FINAL.pdf
The Breckland Society, ‘The Internal Archaeology of the Breckland Warrens: A Report by the Breckland Society’ (2017), accessed 31 March 2023 from www.breakingnewground.org.uk/assets/Uploads/Warrens-report/BrecSocInternalArchaeologyWarrens.pdf
Information on Thetford Warren Lodge from the Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, accessed 19 April 2023 from https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF2760-Thetford-Warren-Lodge&Index=2528&RecordCount=59306&SessionID=a8d841e4-b0dc-47af-9e4e-6fb669ab7bc4
Information on the history of Thetford Warren Lodge, accessed 9 August 2023 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol2/pp107-127

Other
Drawing of Thetford Warren Lodge by Thomas Martin, 1740, Norfolk Musuems and Archaeology Service

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