Warreners: Farming rabbits

In medieval times, rabbits were kept in warrens and farmed for meat and fur. By the early 18th century, this had become almost industrial in scale, with warrens everywhere, from the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire wolds to Sherwood Forest, Sussex and Dartmoor. Rabbit warrening was a perfect use for the sandy, poor soils of the Brecks. The farming was so intense that exposed sand became mobile dunes which engulfed the Suffolk village of Santon Downham in 1688. As rabbits fell out of favour as a meat, warrens were abandoned.