Summary
The site comprises the remnants of the perimeter and trapping banks of Santon Downham Warren, first recorded in 1778. Almost all the banks survive as earthworks visible above ground, occasionally up to a metre high. In some areas the banks are not discernible on the surface but the remains of the boundaries are visible on Lidar imaging confirming the remains below ground.
Reasons for Designation
The earthworks and buried remains of the boundary banks of Santon Downham warren, including linked trapping banks and other divisions, first recorded in 1778, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: as the last of the major Breckland warrens to have been created as part of the unique warrening landscape of the Brecks, the largest example of its kind in the UK and, perhaps, Europe.
* Survival: the warren banks survive well as upstanding earthworks and buried remains and will retain evidence for the date and method of their construction.
* Documentation: the site is well documented both through historical documents and aerial photography, LiDAR imagery and recent survey work which has contributed to our understanding of the warren and its impact on the agricultural economy of East Anglia.
* Potential: the boundary banks will retain important environmental and artefactual evidence to inform our understanding of Breckland rabbit farming, with a high likelihood that the banks may contain evidence of warren activity before the C18.
* Group value: the remains have a strong functional and historical relationship with the well-preserved boundary banks of neighbouring Downham High Warren and Thetford Warren (both scheduled monuments), providing important evidence on the social and economic history of the Brecks during the medieval and post-medieval periods, one 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. 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 wide and 2m high 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.
Santon Downham warren was first recorded in an estate map of 1778 and its surviving banks correspond precisely with those shown at that date. When it was first constructed is not clear and it may be considerably older, though its complex history of ownership suggests that the 1778 layout may have been a relatively late development. The estate passed through many hands until it was sold to speculators in 1918. Today the historic extent of the warren is partly in private ownership, though the warren banks all lie within Thetford Forest.
As part of Thetford Forest the site is intensively managed for the growth of various coniferous and deciduous trees (pine and birch predominate). In some areas the ground is densely covered in bracken and undergrowth.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The site comprises the remnants of the perimeter and trapping banks of Santon Downham Warren, first recorded in 1778. It lies within Thetford Forest, on the south bank of a bend in the Little Ouse River, at the eastern boundary of Santon Downham parish. Almost all of the banks survive as earthworks visible above ground, occasionally up to a metre high. In some areas the banks are not discernible on the surface but the remains of the boundaries are visible on Lidar imaging confirming the remains below ground.
DESCRIPTION
The warren was laid out with boundary banks on three sides and the Little Ouse River to the north. It rises slightly to the south-west, and falls towards the river. The boundary banks run for nearly three and a half kilometres and enclose an area of roughly 177 hectares. The interior of the warren was not considered as part of the assessment.
For ease of description, the banks have been divided into three sections. Section 1 forms the shorter north-western extent of the boundary, connecting to the river bank at the north. Section 2 forms the site’s south-western boundary bank and connects to Section 3. Section 3 runs from the southernmost corner to the river bank at the north-eastern end of the former warren.
Section 1
The western banks of the former warren run between the river’s edge at approximately TL 83046 87102 and the westernmost corner of the warren at TL 82790 86692. A single distinct bank runs between the river and the roughly parallel east-west footpath. It is around 60cm high and 4m wide. It has a perpendicular spur close to the path that extends for around 20m westwards. On the south side of the path the bank multiplies and gains in complexity: the eastern part forks into two diverging banks, creating a funnel shape likely to have been used for trapping rabbits. Closer to the forest track on the western boundary are two parallel banks, less distinct at first (evident only on Lidar) but emerging as low (20cm high, 1.5m wide) earthworks as they continue south. This pattern of several closely spaced banks continues along rest of the course of Section 1 and is clearly shown on Lidar (HER MNF70952). At the Section’s midway point, roughly opposite the scheduled bowl barrow (NHLE 1015265) there is a raised platform likely to be a ‘dole’ (boundary) mound. In this area the banks cluster and may indicate another trapping point.
Section 2
This section begins opposite the southern end of Section 1 (at approximately TL 82794 86666). It corresponds to a ‘little cart way’ mapped in 1778 and 1791 that connect Downham to Thetford and formed the property boundary as it existed at that time.
The bank is a single (mostly) distinct earthwork for around 600m heading south-east. Small sections have been cut through, and a forestry track has flattened the bank at TL 82955 86524. Where the bank survives well as an earthwork it is around 60-80cm high and roughly 6m wide. The distinct earthwork ends at TL 83303 86327, thereafter the bank is evident on Lidar images for around 320m, until the end of the tree plantation mapped as ‘Premises Belt’ at which point it is no longer discernible. Lidar imagery confirms the remains of the boundary bank continue beneath the ground for the length of the Premises Belt.
Roughly 240m south-east of the end of the Premises Belt, the forest path is crossed by a low diagonal earthwork that continues into the trees at the south side and continues for a total of approximately 340m until it meets the southernmost corner of the former warren at TL 83952 85690. This low earthwork is not always distinct, being very wide and shallow (roughly 50cm high and 9m wide) and traversing ground covered in bracken and undergrowth. 0.5m Lidar indicates a corresponding bank between 50 and 100m to the north-east of this section that relates to a wedge-shaped area shown on the 1778 map of the warren, then described as ‘the Furze’.
Section 3
This is the longest continual section of the surviving banks at Santon Downham and runs for around 1.5km between the southernmost corner of the former warren and the footpath parallel to the Little Ouse River at TL 84850 86857. It corresponds to the parish boundary, and there are parallel banks belonging historically to Thetford Warren on the south-east side. For most of this section there is a clear earthwork bank close to the north-western edge of the footpath. At the southern end it is 60cm high and 5m wide. Close to this southern corner, beginning at around TL 84006 85779, a second parallel bank further into the tree plantation is also clearly visible. This parallel bank, measuring around 50-70cm high and 3-4m wide, continues for around 600m. A third bank is indicated in 0.5m (Breckland from Above project data) Lidar images but is not visible as an earthwork. These parallel banks may have been used for trapping rabbits. Where the forestry track crosses the path of the banks they are no longer visible as earthworks.
The northern half of Section 3 mostly consists of a single bank, occasionally of considerable height (around 1m-1.1m high and roughly 3.5m wide). These steep banks have been broken through in certain locations.
The final 100m at the northern end of Section 3 sees two large banks (0.8m-1m high and 6m wide) converging into a funnel shaped trapping bank.
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 Santon Downham 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, although the ground beneath these features is included.
