Summary
The earthworks and buried remains of the western boundary banks of Thetford Warren, first recorded in 1274 when it was known as Westwick Warren. The remains include linked trapping banks and enclosures, along with a building platform and well associated with a warrener's house known as Reed Fen Lodge, believed to have been built after the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-41).
Reasons for Designation
The earthworks and buried remains of the western boundary banks of Thetford Warren, including linked trapping banks and enclosures, along with a building platform and well associated with a warrener's house known as Reed Fen Lodge, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: the western boundary banks, including linked trapping banks and enclosures, along with a building platform and well associated with Reed Fen Lodge, survive comparatively well as upstanding earthworks and buried remains;
* Period: as the warren was in continuous use from the medieval period 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 along with a building platform and well associated with a warrener's house, 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, while small-scale test pitting has confirmed that archaeological evidence of activities associated with the warrener’s house along with the remains of the building itself will survive below the ground surface;
* Documentation: as a high-status rabbit warren the site is well documented both through historical documents and more recent aerial photography, LiDAR imagery and survey work, contributing to our knowledge and understanding of the warren and its impact on the medieval and later agricultural economy of East Anglia;
* Group value: for the strong functional and historical relationship with Thetford High Lodge (Scheduled and Listed Grade II*), and neighbouring Downham High Warren and Santon Downham Warren (also scheduled) which collectively provide important evidence on the social and economic standing of ecclesiastical and secular estates during the medieval and post-medieval periods, and the exploitation and management of the Breckland landscape for a warrening industry that spanned 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 Pflympton 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’, 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, 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.
The earliest known reference to Thetford Warren, which was originally known as Westwick Warren, it formerly being part of the medieval manor of Westwick in Thetford, dates from 1274 when it was recorded, “that the Prior (of the Cluniac priory of St Mary, Thetford) was to find 10 men with bows and arrows, for 40 days, at his expense, whenever the King (Edward I) went against the Welsh in person, for the field called Favertonfield, and for his warren in Westwick in Thetford”. Little is known about the warren’s subsequent history in the later medieval and post-medieval periods except for the building of two warrener’s lodges. The first lodge, Westwick (now Thetford) Warren Lodge (Scheduled and Listed at Grade II*), was built in the C15 at the centre of the warren while the second, Reed Fen Lodge, was built at its northern end. Its absence in the Register of Thetford Priory (which lists repairs to Thetford Warren Lodge and others owned by the Priory (Bodney, Santon and Snarehill) suggests that it was probably built after the Dissolution. It is depicted as an unnamed building on Hodkinson’s Map of Suffolk (1783) and Faden’s Map of Norfolk (1797) and as 'Reedfen Lodge' on the first edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1884). The OS map also depicts a small building standing immediately to its west. Subsequent OS maps show that it had become a roofless building by 1928 and had been demolished by 1974. Census returns shows that the lodge was inhabited from 1841 to 1911. The presence of a third lodge known as High Wrong Corner Lodge at the southern end of the warren has been suggested by place name evidence, but no archaeological evidence has been provided to support this hypothesis.
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, Thetford Warren 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. The most substantial perimeter banks belonging to the warren are those along its western edge, where it abuts Downham High Warren and, further north, Santon Downham Warren. There are fragmentary banks along its southern boundary, where it follows the parish and county boundary. To the east, its northern half (to the north of the Thetford to Brandon road) seems to have been bounded by the River Little Ouse as there is no evidence of an additional earthwork boundary, with the river itself probably being regarded as an adequate boundary. To the south of the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107), its eastern boundary has been lost to a golf course while its southern boundary has been annexed by a Ministry of Defence rifle range. 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, mosses, climbing corydalis and Wavy-hair grass with Creeping soft-grass and nettles.
In 2015, the building platform of Reed Fen Lodge was identified from Lidar imagery. In the same year three test pits were dug at the site by the Friends of Thetford Forest, a voluntary body whose aim is to increase knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of Thetford Forest and to encourage the involvement of the local community and general public in its future development. These produced brick and tile fragments of C17 to C18 date, nails of pre-1800 date and occupation evidence including pottery and a writing slate. As the finds suggested the presence of a permanent building rather than a seasonal structure, the Friends widened their archaeological investigation and dug a further five test pits. These uncovered pieces of floor tile and the remains of a flint and brick rubble wall which has been interpreted as part of a foundation plinth of either the lodge itself or an associated building. During both investigations, blocks of dressed limestone were found part-buried in vegetation and in one of the test pits. One of the stone blocks was found to be inscribed with the initial ‘H’ and the date ‘1737’. It has been suggested that the stone may have been transferred here along the River Little Ouse from Thetford Priory or that it may have come from the Church of St Helen, a C12 church which stood around 1km to the north-west on the north side of the River Little Ouse and is believed to have been abandoned and demolished by 1368.
Details
The earthworks and buried remains of the western boundary banks of Thetford Warren, including linked trapping banks and enclosures, along with a building platform and well associated with a warrener's house known as Reed Fen Lodge. Thetford Warren was first recorded in 1274 when it was known as Westwick Warren and Reed Fen Lodge is believed to have been built after the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-41). The site lies within the south-east section of Thetford Forest, bisected by the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107), with the banks, in part, forming the county boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk.
Almost all of the banks, where they have not been bisected by woodland rides, survive as earthworks, up to a maximum of around 2.5m high and 5m wide. In some areas the banks are not discernible but are shown to survive through LiDAR imaging.
DESCRIPTION: the most substantial and well-preserved boundary banks belonging to Thetford Warren are those along its western edge, where it abuts Downham High Warren and, further north, Santon Downham Warren. The boundary here consists of a series of parallel linear banks which are aligned roughly north-east to south-west and survive for a length of some 5.5km from High Wrong Corner in the south to the floodplain of the River Little Ouse in the north, with the ground falling slightly from its southern extent (45m above OD) to the north (15m above OD). The banks have an asymmetrical profile, with a vertical face on the inside, some sections of which were lined with flint to deter burrowing, and a more sloping profile on the outside.
For ease of description, the boundary banks have been divided into two distinct sections, divided by the east-west aligned Thetford to Brandon road (B1107). Section 1, which forms the longer southern extent of the western boundary, runs for a length of around 3km on a north-north-east to south-south-east alignment from High Wrong Corner in the south to the south side of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107) in the north. Section 2 forms the shorter northern extent and runs for a length of around 2.5km from the north side of the Thetford to Brandon Road (B1107) to Reed Fen on the floodplain of the River Little Ouse in the north.
SECTION 1: the southern section of the warren's western boundary commences from a triangular-shaped enclosure centred at NGR TL 81758 82848 at High Wrong Corner. From here two parallel banks continue north-north-eastwards for a distance of some 585m to a second triangular-shaped enclosure centred at NGR TL 82091 83433. The two banks then continue on the same alignment for a distance of around 915m to a rectilinear enclosure centred at NGR TL 82600 84231. From this enclosure only the western bank continues north-north-eastwards, continuing for some 677m to NGR TL 82889 84737, where it forks into three parallel banks which proceed north-eastwards for a distance of some 690m to the south side of the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107). In this latter stage the central and western banks are aligned close together, at between 40m-50m apart during the course of their length, which, combined with the funnel shape at the south end, are likely to have been used for trapping rabbits. Some sections of the vertical inner face of the western bank are lined with flint.
SECTION 2: immediately to the north of the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107), the three banks continue north-eastwards for an average distance of 455m, although the survival of the eastern bank as a low earthwork is not always discernible. The area between the central and western banks is divided into two rectangular enclosures centred at NGR TL 83263 85426 and TL83374 85587. From the north-east side of the northern enclosure two parallel banks, aligned some 65m apart, turn on an east-west alignment for a length of some 350m and form a rectangular-shaped enclosure centred at NGR TL83776 85628. This enclosure is bounded at its east end by a small, triangular-shaped enclosure centred at NGR TL 83942 85616. From the north-east side of this enclosure three parallel banks continue north-eastwards, turning more to the north at the northern end, before terminating on the floodplain of the River Little Ouse. In this final stage (from the north side of the triangular-shaped enclosure), the first 771m is formed of two conjoined rectangular enclosures centred at NGR TL 84196 85915 and NGR TL 84298 8599, with the central and middle banks running parallel with each other to create a narrower enclosure on the east side. At NGR TL 84371 86055 the central bank turns northwards towards the western bank to create a funnel at the northern end of the western enclosure, probably used for catching rabbits. Adjoining the northern end of the two conjoined enclosures is a sub-rectangular enclosure centred at NGR TL84577 86284, probably with trapping banks on its west side. This enclosure is adjoined at its northern end by a square-shaped enclosure centred at NGR TL 84678 86420 which is in turn adjoined at its northern end by a sub-rectangular enclosure centred at NGR TL 84789 86574, both with trapping banks on their east side. Adjoining the northern end of the latter enclosure is a sub-rectangular enclosure centred at NGR TL 84869 86747, which was probably associated with Reed Fen Lodge, a post-Dissolution warrener’s house, rather then the warren itself. The location of the warrener's house is indicated by a sub-rectangular platform, around 20m by 10m, situated at the enclosure’s north-east corner at NGR TL 84932 86750. The position of an associated well is indicated by a small depression while trial pits dug in 2015 show that structural remains associated with the house survive as buried features.
Between the two sections the boundary banks have been eroded by the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107) and a series of woodland rides used by Forestry England for management access by vehicles.
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 western boundary banks of Thetford Warren, including linked trapping banks and enclosures, along with a building platform and well associated with a warrener's house known as Reed Fen Lodge. 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 within the scheduled area are excluded from the scheduling, as are all Forestry England's woodland rides and the Thetford to Brandon road (B1107), although the ground beneath these features is included.
