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Summary

Huntingdon Warren, established in 1808 for farming rabbits. This warren contains around 100 artificial pillow mounds and several vermin traps. This site is included in the local list of Nationally Important Dartmoor sites.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1004587: Three enclosed hut groups, Huntingdon Warren
• SHINE: Earthworks of Huntingdon Medieval Warren including pillow mounds, vermin traps and warren house, Bronze Age hut circles, enclosures, and the Huntingdon Barrow as well as old tin workings including Huntingdon Tin Mine, Gibby Beam and Wellabrook Girt

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66NE43
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441481
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/13

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• RABBIT WARREN (XIX to Early 20th Century - 1808 AD (Between) to 1930 AD (Between))

Full description

National Monuments Record, NMR SX6566, 1 (Aerial Photograph). SDV234496.

National Monuments Record, NMR SX6666, 1, 4, 9 (Aerial Photograph). SDV151758.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/3G/TUD/UK/223, 5037 (Aerial Photograph). SDV147275.

Visible on air photographs.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 4272, 4275-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDV140289.

Royal Air Force, 1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2494, 4117-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDV147533.

Royal Air Force, 1953, 58/1110, 0043 (Aerial Photograph). SDV157241.

Cook, R. M. L., 1964, Old vermin traps on south-west Dartmoor, 196 (Article in Serial). SDV230549.

Huntingdon Warren at the head of the Avon Valley was established 1808. No sign of any trap sites in the warren. Inspected by R. G. Haynes, 1962.

Linehan, C. D., 1966, Deserted Sites and Rabbit-Warrens on Dartmoor, Devon, 113-144, Table 2 (Article in Serial). SDV307246.

SX 665669. Warren; Twenty pillow-mounds counted at Huntingdon, Lydford. The trade in rabbits has only recently been discontinued.

Haynes, R. G., 1970, Vermin Traps and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor, 163 (Article in Serial). SDV166302.

(Site visited in 1962?) The pillow mounds in general have their axes down slope. Lengths vary from 9.0 meters to 44.0 meters, widths 4.5 meters to 10.0 meters, heights from 0.7 meters to 1.6 meters. 102 mounds have been identified from air photographs. Ceased to be a warren in 1882. Comprises 610 acres, bounded by rivers Wallabrook and Avon to the east and south, and by a reave to the north and west. The warren has an unusually large number of buries - at least 80. Four vermin traps have been found, suggesting perhaps an earlier warren.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66NE43 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV234494.

(02/08/1977) On the hillsides and valleys within Huntingdon Warren (name confirmed) are situated one hundred and two pillow mounds the majority of which have their main axes down the slope. The lengths vary from 9.0 m to 44.0 m with a mean of 19.0 m. The widths are from 4.5 m to 10.0 m with 6.0 m as the mean and the heights vary from 0.7 m to 1.6 m with 1.2 m as the mean.
All the mounds are ditched and three have been constructed from enclosure walling (See SX 66 NE 24). Three mounds are not shown at SX 666670 due to the scale of survey.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on O.S. map.

Harvey, N., 1980, Industrial Archaeology of Farming in England and Wales (Monograph). SDV234502.

Pillow-mounds at Huntingdon Warren. Clearly visible on air photograph.

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 309-313 (Monograph). SDV249702.

Huntingdon Warren and house existed here prior to 1809, when a lease was granted to Thomas Michelmore to work the warren. Walls enclosing the uninclosed land on the hill were built between 1809 and 1819, as per the conditions of the lease. The vermin traps are likely to be later. Hemery believes a longhouse and smaller warren predated Huntingdon Warren, the remains of which would have been reused in the building of Huntingdon Warren House. Warrening at Huntingdon ceased shortly after the Great War, although the house was lived in until 1956.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1983, Untitled Source (Monograph). SDV234503.

Other details: Plate 89.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

The boundaries to Huntingdon Warren: Western Walla Brook from SX66476803 to SX66506615, River Avon from SX66506615 to SX66016614, wall from SX66016614 to edge of map at SX65006700, linear feature from SX65006741 to SX66476803.
Total enclosed area 250 hectares. Main concentration of pillow mounds between SX665673 and SX663663, below the 1450 foot contour. 75 pillow mounds are visible, mostly in south-east of the warren, near Western Walla Brook.
There is evidence of extensive mining within boundaries with deserted buildings and field system. SX66NW/99.

Griffith, F. M., 1990, DAP/QG, 4-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDV234504.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East (Monograph). SDV337765.

Warren depicted on Butler's map. Other details: Map 58.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1993-1998, Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, Simon Probert (Report - Survey). SDV346608.

(31/01/1996) Centred at SX665669. The remains of a large 19th century enclosed warren comprising 116 pillow mounds, a destroyed Warrener's House and a complex series of drainage channels lies on the east, south and west flanks of Huntingdon Warren some 8.0 kilometres west of Buckfastleigh. (For the warren-house, see 14372).
The chronology of the site and its tenants is discussed at length by Hemery (1983 309-314). Occupation lasted until 1956 though warrening was abandoned before or during the last war.
The main warren building is represented by a large rubble mound displaying few structural details, having been demolished by explosives in 1961 (Hemery 1983, 312). Insubstantial traces of outbuildings also exist in the immediate are though their precise form and function is unclear. The most numerous features of this area are the well-built pillow mounds which average 5.5 meters wide but vary in length from 5.2 meters to 42.5 meters and stand between 0.5 meters and 2.0 meters high. Most possess drainage ditches and are positioned across the contours. Several of these mounds are irregular or ovoid in shape and two are obviously unfinished.
To protect the mounds from waterlogging a number of drainage channels were constructed on the southern flank of the warren. The lower portions of these utilise former tinners openworks and measure up to 10.0 meters wide and 5.0 meters deep while the upper extremities of this system are little more than leats around 1.0 meters wide and 0.5 meters deep. Overall they form a grid pattern running diagonally across the slope.
A detailed report and large scale survey are deposited in the archive.

Gerrard, S., 2004, List of Sites Remaining to be Considered for Designation on Dartmoor (Un-published). SDV345444.

This site was considered for designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument during the Monument Protection Programme. The programme ended before the entire list of sites was successfully scheduled so this is included on a local list of Nationally Important Sites.

Ordnance Survey, 2011, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV346129.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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