The Archaeology of Rabbit Warrens

by Tom Williamson

Rabbit farming was an important part of the rural economy from medieval times through to the early twentieth century, and the archaeological remains of rabbit warrens still litter the countryside. This book describes the main archaeological features of warrens and discusses their date and function, the banks and walls used to contain the rabbits, the traps used to catch both them and their vermin predators, the lodges in which the warreners lived and kept their equipment and, above all, the buries or pillow bounds in which the rabbits were encouraged to reside.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Tom Williamson is Professor of Landscape History, University of East Anglia; he has written widely on landscape archaeology, agricultural history, and the history of landscape design.

Reviews

[Emma England · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and engaging little book. It takes no time at all to read and is surprisingly informative about a very little known subject.

[Lee Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all Shire Archaeology volumes this book provides a very thorough introductory review of a subject. For a while, this one enjoyed the dubious honour of being the only book on the subject: that changed when Williamson published Rabbits, Warrens and Archaeology, a longer treatment of the same subject for not much more money (I haven't linked to it here as it doesn't yet seem to be on GoodReads).

[Stevie Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only recently became aware of rabbit warrens as a human construction rather than those described in the likes of Watership Down. The text here was a good introduction to their development, use and decline, but I would have liked some livelier illustrations (more akin to those on the cover) to go with it.