The arrival of rabbits in East Anglia
The European rabbit is native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), and the northern Atlas mountains in Northwest Africa. It has been widely introduced elsewhere, including to the British Isles.
Whilst rabbit bones and teeth are found at various U.K. archaeological sites that date back to ‘warm’ inter-glacial periods, none have been found at Iron Age, Roman or even Anglo-Saxon sites. The Romans did import domesticated rabbits (as evidenced by bones found at Fishbourne Roman palace in Chichester) but there is scant evidence that any Roman rabbits escaped to the countryside and established themselves. Apparently, there is no mention of rabbit warrens in the Domesday Book.
Rabbits became acknowledged as members of the British fauna only between the 12th-13th centuries, with the first real evidence of their presence consisting of a number of bones from the midden of Rayleigh Castle (Essex), which was occupied from the 11th-13th centuries. Definite records of rabbits on the mainland exist from about 1235 AD, they show that Henry III had rabbits in a royal park at Guildford.
Most warrens in East Anglia had been founded by the late 13th century, many by church landlords. The Bishoprics of Ely created warrens at Brandon and Freckenham respectively; Bury St Edmunds Abbey did likewise at Mildenhall and so did West Acre Priory at Wicken and Custhorpe in Norfolk. It is believed that the rabbit was a particularly favoured delicacy of the Abbot of St Edmunds who had a warren created at his country retreat in Elmswell and at Long Melford, whilst both West Acre and West Dereham Priories also established their own warrens nearby. Various lay landlords were also prominent in this new experiment, notably at Methwold, Thetford, Tunstead and Gimingham. During the movement and transfer of rabbits between the estates and parks of the nobility it is likely that some escaped and established themselves in the countryside.
