The Physical Settings of Rabbit Warrens in South-West England

ABSTRACT

Introduced to Britain in the twelfth century, rabbits were farmed in man-made warrens for their meat and fur for several centuries. It is sometimes assumed that the locations of man-made warrens were dictated by environmental factors, typically that they were built where there was dry, warm soil as rabbits naturally prefer such habitats. This paper, using a landscape archaeological rather than documentary approach, argues that there was much freedom concerning where landowners were able to build rabbit warrens. A key factor in determining where warrens were installed, at least during the medieval period, was not the nature of the local environment, but rather a desire to fulfil social expectations. Similarly, it has been cited that warren numbers flourished during the late medieval and post-medieval periods because they were able to utilise poor-quality marginal lands. While warrens are found on marginal lands, it is equally apparent that they also made greater use of areas that could, and did, support arable farming. The use of such lands for rearing rabbits must have offered economic benefits, and within south-west England it is apparently associated with a greater tendency for pastoral farming over arable farming.

KEYWORDS:

• Rabbit warrens
• coneygarths
• pillow mounds
• pastoral farming
• land-use

Acknowledgements

All base-mapping used throughout this article has been obtained from the Edina Digimap service, while the county borders are from the Historic County Borders Project. Pillow mound and warren data has been collated from the following HERs: Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Gloucester, Bristol, Wiltshire and Dorset. The following HLC projects have been consulted: Gloucestershire (including the Cotswolds and the Wye Valley AONBs), Avon (including South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset), Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire and Swindon, and Dorset. I would also like to thank Dr Anne McBride, Senior Lecturer in Human-Animal Interactions and Animal Behaviour at Southampton University for answering my questions about rabbits and their natural habitats.

Notes on contributor

David Gould is a landscape archaeologist and is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter working on the AHRC-funded Exeter: A Place in Time project. His PhD investigated the history and landscapes of rabbit warrens in south-west England and was funded and hosted by the Universities of Exeter and Bristol. Contact: [email protected]