Monument record LKH 063 - Earthwork enclosure, Lakenheath Warren

One of four earthwork enclosures on Lakenheath Warren - see LKH 064-066. `TL 776 801. Slightly trapezoidal enclosure of about 11 acres bounded by a bank 30 to 50 feet wide and not more than 2 feet high with no trace of an entrance. At SW corner a low narrow bank runs SW for 120 feet and then fades out. Excavations in 1970 on the S side near the SE corner revealed an adjoining ditch, which was originally at least 2 feet deep but no finds' (S1). Also traces of ridge & furrow in interior on same alignment (S2). First recorded by Watt in 1940 (S2)(R1). Probably Med. Mapping approximate after (S2).
Field survey as part of Brecks Survey failed to locate the enclosure - thick grass heath and semi-formal Scots Pine plantation which had recently been thinned by machine (tyre tracks and felled trees evident)(S3). March 1996: Relocated and plotted on HER maps after (S4).

A terrier of 1649 requires the warrener to 'support and relieve the said coneys in the time of winter with hay and all other necessary feedings' and it may be the four internal rectangular earthwork enclosures on Lakenheath Warren were used to grow crops. Each enclosure is about 11 acres, is bounded by low banks of no more than 2 feet high and has traces of ridge and furrow. The banks are of sand, small flints and lumps of chalk (S6).

2010: The Breckland Society's survey of The Warrens of Breckland mentions four enclosures with low surrounding banks on the warren, which may have been for the cultivation of fodder for the rabbits (S5).
See LKH 174 for Lakenheath Rabbit Warren