Summary
Perimeter and trapping banks of Downham High Warren, first recorded in 1440.
Reasons for Designation
The earthworks and buried remains of Downham High Warren, including its boundary banks, trapping banks and enclosures, first recorded in 1440, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: as part of the unique warrening landscape of the Brecks, the largest example of its kind in the UK and, perhaps, Europe.
* Survival: the boundary banks, including linked trapping banks and enclosures, survive well as upstanding earthworks and buried remains.
* Period: as the warren was in continuous use from at least the mid-C15 to the early C20 it gives a significant understanding into an important aspect of the medieval and later agricultural economy in East Anglia.
* Diversity: the boundary bank earthworks, linked trapping banks and enclosures provide a rich diversity of features which collectively have the potential to enhance our understanding of the site’s foundation, use and decline.
* Potential: the boundary banks will retain important structural, environmental and artefactual evidence to inform our understanding of medieval and post-medieval rabbit farming.
* Documentation: the site is well documented both through historical documents and aerial photography, LiDAR imagery and recent survey work which has contributed to our understanding of the warren and the role it played in the medieval and later agricultural economy of East Anglia.
* Group value: the remains of High Downham Warren have a strong functional and historical relationship with neighbouring Thetford Warren and Santon Downham Warren, and nearby Thetford High Lodge (Scheduled and Listed Grade II*). This group provide important evidence on the social and economic standing of ecclesiastical and secular estates during the medieval and post-medieval periods, which saw the exploitation and management of this unique warrening landscape over some 600 years.
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. 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 2m high and 10m wide and were vertical on their inner faces and sloped on their outer faces. Each turf, also called a ‘sad’ or ‘clower’, was 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, Downham, Thetford and Wangford Warrens, were also used to delineate parish, district and county 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.
Downham High Warren was probably owned by Ixworth Priory, and was first recorded in 1440 when poaching gangs were reported as operating there (WSROB 651/31/4). In 1618, the estate was bought by Wrights of Kilverstone, and in 1778 by Charles Sloane Cadogan. An estate map of 1778 named the ‘warren bank’ and marked ‘doles’ at regular intervals round the perimeter (NRO MC662/22 793X5). Cadogan held the position of Surveyor of the King’s Gardens and began to establish plantations on the warren; these were destroyed during the First World War (1914-18) when the Board of Timber Supply requisitioned the trees. The warrener’s lodge on Downham High Warren stood at the highest point, close to where the Oak Lodge Community Building now stands within High Lodge Forest Centre; a farmstead stood on the site until it was demolished in the 1970s.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The site comprises the remnants of the perimeter and trapping banks of Downham High Warren, first recorded in 1440. It occupies the central part of Thetford Forest, to the south of the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107) and east of the Brandon to Elveden road (B1106). The west and east banks (described below as Sections 1 and 2) form the south-west and south-east boundaries of Santon Downham parish. Almost all of the banks of Downham High Warren survive as earthworks visible above ground, occasionally up to 1.5m high. In some areas the banks are not discernible due to dense tree growth, but are shown to survive through Lidar imaging.
DESCRIPTION: Downham High Warren was laid out with boundary banks on four sides, and abutted Santon Downham Warren to the north-east, Thetford Warren to the east, Elveden Warren to the south, and Brandon Warren to the west. The warren boundary largely consists of parallel linear banks, which run in four near-continuous sections (broken by forest tracks) for around 9km in total and enclose an area of around 1,500 hectares. The warren lodge stood at the highest point in the warren (50m above OD) to the west of centre, and the land slopes very gently away to the boundary banks (30-40m above OD). The warren banks generally have an asymmetrical profile, with a near-vertical face on the inside, some sections of which were lined with flint to deter burrowing, and a more sloping profile to the outside. Where the forestry tracks cross the path of the banks they are no longer visible as earthworks. The interior of the warren was not considered as part of this assessment (2023).
For ease of description, the boundary banks have been divided into four distinct sections. Section 1, which forms the longest extent and western boundary, runs for a length of around 4.2km on a north-north-west to south-south-east alignment from near Green Road in Brandon to near High Wrong Corner. Section 2 is the second-longest section and runs from near High Wrong Corner north-north-east for a length of around 2.7km to around 330m south of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107). Section 3 runs from the north side of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107) north-north-east for a length of around 440m before it turns east for around 540m toward Warren Wood where it abuts the south-east corner of Santon Downham Warren, and Thetford Warren to the east. Section 4 lies around 1km north-west of and roughly parallel with Section 3; it runs north-east from the road leading to Santon Downham for a length of around 570m where it abuts the south-west corner of Santon Downham Warren.
Section 1: The west boundary of the warren is the longest extent of Downham High Warren, and also forms the south-west boundary of Santon Downham parish. It runs from the south-east of Brandon around TL 79855 86039 for a length of approximately 4.2km to the south-west corner of the warren at TL 81117 82636, west of High Wrong Corner. The north-west end around TL 79855 86039 is splayed, with the banks measuring around 12m in width; their height is eroded to around 0.5m. The two parallel banks converge to a trapping point around TL 80067 857786, with a break of around 12m before another trapping point and its trapping banks running south. The banks continue south at a height of around 0.75m and width of around 4.5m, with steep inner sides and their flint construction exposed in parts. Around TL 80180 85420 trapping banks converge to the north and south side of a former gate, with curved outer banks each side of the gate. South of the gate, the banks turn south-east, the outer (west) bank is taller at around 1.5m in height, and the interior (east) bank around 60cm high, with a width of around 6.5m. At around TL 80431 85147 the banks are steep and tall at about 1.8m high and 7m wide, with around 3m between them, and from this point turn southwards; from here the east bank measures around 1.5m in height. To the south of a track at TL 80459 84793 the banks grow in complexity, becoming three parallel banks, narrow with steep sides, measuring around 1.5m in height and 8m in width. Around 180m to the south, the group of three parallel banks becomes more complex with the addition of a fourth bank and an enclosure between the central two banks. The banks soon reduce to three again and disappear into the woods to the south-south-west after the track at TL 80290 84337. Lidar and aerial photography show the banks turn south-south-east at TL 80109 83857 and the west bank splits to become a pair of parallel banks, with an enclosure approximately 50m wide between the pair of banks and the single east bank. The pair of parallel banks converge at points to create trapping points, and are interrupted at TL 80283 83334 by ‘Tom’s Bomb Hole’. There is a complex arrangement of banks around TL 80449 82957 where they turn south-east, reduce in number and terminate with a single bank around TL 81114 82631.
Section 2: the south-east and east boundary of the former warren is the second-longest surviving extent of Downham High Warren and runs for a length of approximately 2.7km, parallel to a forest track and Thetford Warren to the east. Section 2 begins around 520m east of the southernmost point of Section 1, east of High Wrong Corner; any east-west banks that previously stood between the two sections were flattened by forest machinery in the C20. From TL 81653 82780 two parallel banks, each around 3-4m wide and 0.5m in height, run north for around 200m with an enclosure around 25m wide between the parallel banks. They then turn north-north-east and run parallel for around 780m to a trapping bank at TL 82162 83649. From here, the west bank continues as a single bank, around 3m wide and 30-40cm in height to around TL 82391 83975, where it turns northwards; the east bank begins again around this point, 60cm high and 3m wide. The two parallel banks turn north-east around TL 82453 84237 and the west bank disappears around TL 82691 84470. The east bank turns north-north-east, and to the south side of the forest track at TL 82816 84660, the coursed flint construction of the inside of the bank is clearly visible. There is a suggestion of a trapping or corralling point around TL 82863 84769, where there is a short spur to the north, and on this stretch the bank is around 3m wide and 40cm high. The height is reduced to around 20cm at its apparent termination point at TL 82975 85091, approximately 330m south-west of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107).
Section 3: the most north-easterly section of the warren boundary, and the second-shortest section, commences immediately north-east of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107). Two parallel banks run north-east for approximately 440m, parallel with Thetford Warren. From where a forest track crosses the warren banks at TL 83318 85601 it can be observed that the east bank is around 0.5m high and 3m wide, and the west bank has been eroded to around 20cm in height. From around TL 83414 85738, a pair of trapping banks diverge and run parallel to the east for approximately 540m, converging where they abut Santon Downham Warren at TL 83942 85673. Visual assessment was limited by dense tree growth, especially in the north-east part where bracken is very dense, but the banks are clearly visible on Lidar imaging.
Section 4: the most northerly and shortest extent of warren boundary, lies around 1km north-west of and roughly parallel with Section 3, to the north-east side of the road to Santon Downham. From TL 82327 86374 two parallel warren banks run north-east for a length of around 570m, terminating around TL 82797 86669 where they abut the south-west corner of Santon Downham Warren. The north-west bank is approximately 60cm high and 4m wide, and the south-east bank around 20cm high and 3m wide; the parallel banks enclose an area around 30m in width. North of the north-west bank, there is an additional parallel bank around 340m in length, which splays where it meets the south-west corner of Santon Downham Warren. The arrangement is complex with two perpendicular banks, and spurs between it and Santon Downham Warren, creating enclosures for the potential trapping of rabbits, growing of feed, or protection of nursing does. A forest track runs south-west to north-east along the north-west side of the group of banks, and they abut Santon Downham Warren on the north-east side.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The area of protection is shown on the accompanying map extract and is designed to protect the known extent of the earthworks and buried remains of the boundary banks, trapping banks and other associated earthworks and buried archaeological evidence of Downham High Warren. It includes a 5-metre boundary around the monument, which is considered to be essential for its support and preservation.
EXCLUSIONS: All fences, fences posts and metalled surfaces that cross the monument are excluded from the scheduling as are all Forestry England's woodland rides and the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107), although the ground beneath them is included.
