Eriswell Warren

Map of Location

Warren Features

Other documentary evidence

When the New England Company purchased the manor of `Eereswell cum Chamberlains’ in the mid C17, the title abstract noted `two free warrens containing 2000 acres and the game and stock of coneys in the said warrens’ (S3).  Presumably there was a Low and a High Warren, with a lodge in each (see ERL 062 for the site of the Lower Lodge).

In existence by 1300 as part of the manorial holding.  Recorded as being of 2000 acres in 1680s, it was divided into the Upper and Lower Warrens, each with its own lodge.

In his book ‘Early Medieval Eriswell’, Reverend Munday gives 1300 as the date for the warren being in existence as it was mentioned in connection with the site of a murder ‘one of the bounds is the Prior of Ely’s cunicularum’ –but has he confused this with Lakenheath Warren ?

1309 Warren was valued at 30s 4d when the manor was sold
following the death of Robert de Tuddenham.  (Topography of Medieval Eriswell

1649 Belonged to Sir Henry Bedingfeld  Ref ?

1652 Purchased by the New England Company
Lease 1685 ‘and all those warrens now stocked with conies called the Upper Warren and the Nether Warren with the lodges and other priviliges
Acreage given as 984 acres for High Warren and 328 acres for Low Warren.
Enclosure 1818

Estate belonging to Duleep Singh (also includes Lakenheath and Elveden)
Map
Map 1871
Munday  Deed of Sale 1652 ‘All that Heath Ground, Sheepwalk or Sheep Course called the Lodge Flock Ground .. containing by estimate three hundred, three score and eighteen acres, two roods and thirty perches’

[WSROB M547/10, WSROB HD998/1, WSROB HD998/1 and WSROB E18/452/18, WSROB HD998/1, WSROB D1964/4,Ipswich RO, HD1538/213, WSROB M547/10]

Earliest documentary evidence

A rabbit warren was first mentioned in 1309 when the manor was valued after the death of Robert de Tudenham who had held it.  It was noted as `a small rabbit warren with a right of free-warren valued at 1 marc [13s 4d] a year’ (S2).  In existence by 1300 as part of the manorial holding.
In his book ‘Early Medieval Eriswell’, Reverend Munday gives 1300 as the date for the warren being in existence as it was mentioned in connection with the site of a murder ‘one of the bounds is the Prior of Ely’s cunicularum’.[WSROB M547/10] Topography of Medieval Eriswell Reverend Munday WSROB HD998/1′

Boundary Banks

Warren banks 1820 Plan showing ‘Ancient Banks’ grass ridge alongside road [Q/SH/31]

Lodges

JT Munday (Eriswell pamphlets,) 1309 ‘on each coneynger a lodge was built to house (and defend) the warrener and his family’.

Recorded as being of 2 000 acres in 1680s, it was divided into the Upper and Lower Warrens, each with its own lodge.
Munday notes that material from the medieval lodge was incorporated into the post-enclosure (1818) farm buildings. Two lodge sites are marked on Hodskinson’s 1783 Map as High Lodge and Lower Lodge
[WSROB HD998/1,Blomefield Vol 2 ]

Trapping Banks

Rev Munday describes ‘banks built diagonally across the warren and traps set in holes in them’.[WSROB HD998/1]

Wills

Will of John Robinson 5 April 1735 [PROB 11/670]’

Forestry Commission

Inclosure Award 1818

1820 Two new roads ‘near the fir trees’  Icklingham Estate Sale 1898

WSROB HD1964/4,WSROB BA500]

Enclosure Acts

Rev Munday
1652-1818 Very detailed description of warren and rabbits (p 20-23).
17th century “No hedges or fences dividing the Acres, only narrow strips of land left unploughed as Boundaries”.

Leases

Lease 1685 ‘and all those warrens now stocked with conies called the Upper Warren and the Nether Warren with the lodges and other priviliges
Acreage given as 984 acres for High Warren and 328 acres for Low Warren.WSROB M547/10]

Boundary Banks
1 Low bank  0.3m wide x 01 m high. Intermittent tree cover.
2 Double banks each 0.5 wide x 0.4 high. Distance between top s of banks 6.5m. Covered with pines.
3 Double banks. Nearest to track 0.5m wide x 0.7m high; other 0.5m wide x 1m high.
Stump-row intersects banks at TL79773 82471 (photogragh E ). Dense bracken cover but no trees. Inner bank disappears under dug-over earth.
4 Single bank 6m wide x 2m high. Crosses open area. Dense bracken cover.
5 Single bank  6m wide x 2m high. Turns corner at angle to trackway. Pine rows on bank.
6 Single bank 0.2m wide x 0.1m high only just visible as a low mound. Bracken cover4 with a few trees.
7 Single bank 1m wide x 1m high. Crosses track and is clearly defined on either side. Damaged by machinery at TL79400 82095. Then internal bank 7m wide x 0.5m high. Joins double perimeter bank but this join not shown on the stock map. Has single oaks along the top c75+ years old. 8 Double banks. Low bank next to the track 8m wide x 0.5m high and then bank 12m wide
and 1m high; 20m between the two banks. Both covered with bracken and trees.
9 Banks from Section 8 insignificant low mounds through plantation.
10 Low mound in plantation 2m wide x 0.5m high with possible second bank to the south.
11 Virtually indistinct in plantation
12 Four banks but easternmost fades out as runs south. Each c2m wide and 0.5m high.
Bracken and grass covered.
13 Double banks on west – this is the boundary with Wangford Warren 4m wide x 0.6m high then lower bank, 2.5m x 0.3m to east. 40m between double Banks and single bank. Bracken cover.
14 Double banks as in Section 13 and single inner bank less distinct and only 20m between it and double banks. Little bracken; instead, tree cover.
15 Perimeter fence at boundary with Centre Parcs – may be along perimeter bank of
Warren, according to the 1805 map.
16 Bank comes in from south, crosses track at TL81299 80943. 0.7m wide x 0.2m high.
17 Very indistinct but possible bank.
18 and 19 No banks apparent and plantation very dense and not yet thinned.
20 Single bank crosses track and runs east-west. 6m wide x 1m high. Dense bracken cover.
21 Single bank end-on at track, coming from direction of Section 20 bank.
22 Continues on other side of track 8m wide and 1m high until reaches Brandon-Bury Road.