Hunting Grounds and Deer Parks
Hunting was popular during the Roman period although no definite structural evidence of this activity has been found in England. Historical sources indicate that hunting was also popular during what is conventionally termed the Anglo-Saxon period in England. However, neither archaeological nor historical evidence suggests the presence of designed landscapes around high status houses during this period.
The English medieval kings had access to vast forest hunting grounds, some wooded, where Forest Law gave protection both to the deer and to the trees. The infrastructure of forests and chases (forests granted by the Crown to others) included structures such as lodges and boundary banks. Deer parks were typically much smaller areas of wood and grassland (mostly of 30-80 ha), located away from settlements and from the lord’s house on economically marginal land. It has been pointed out that deer parks were not synonymous with ‘hunting preserves’. They could be the scene of hunts but their confined space offered limited space for this activity and their real purpose was the supply of venison, wood and timber.
On the Isle of Wight there were hunting forests at Parkhurst and Borthwood.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the Isle of Wight was an area of strategic military importance and was under the control of William Fitz Osbern, a close associate of William I. Following a brief period under direct royal control from 1075 to 1100 the lordship of the Island passed to the de Redvers family and remained with this family until the death of Isabella de Fortibus in 1293. After this period the captains and governors of the Island were appointed by the Crown.
The pre-Norman fortified site at Carisbrooke Castle (SM, LB I) was located on a chalk hill top dominating the surrounding land. This fortification was enlarged and strengthened by the Fitz Osbern and de Redvers families to become a strongly defended military site and an even stronger symbolic statement about the power of the lords of the Island.
The southern edge of Parkhurst Forest lay only a mile to the north of Carisbrooke Castle on the clays and gravels of the Northern Lowlands. The forest is not recorded until c.1200 but its existence as early as AD 986 can be inferred from a charter describing the boundaries of an estate at Watchingwell. The eastern boundary of Watchingwell is coterminous with what later documents reveal to be the western boundary of Parkhurst Forest.
Parkhurst Forest was used by the lords of the Island and later by the Crown for hunting purposes and the preservation of game, but early documentary sources provide evidence for other uses. Several manors had rights of common within the forest, only about one third of which was wooded.
The character and extent of Parkhurst Forest has been greatly affected by C19 century enclosure and by later Forestry Commission management but there is some physical evidence of its former role as a hunting forest. The northern boundary appears to be medieval. Much of it is followed by a bank and ditch which may have been built to control the movements of deer although further study of this feature is needed. Inside the forest is an enclosure which is first shown on a map of 1770. This enclosure formerly contained a Keeper’s lodge and could be a medieval or early-post medieval feature.
Borthwood Forest (lying on greensand soils to the south of the East Wight Chalk Ridge) was attached to the Lordship of the Island and it is possible that the place- name ‘Queen’s Bower’ adjacent to Borthwood Copse may actually be a reference to a hunting lodge or viewing tower used by Isabella de Fortibus. She was the last member of the de Redvers family to rule the Island, was probably the most powerful woman in C13 England and was considered locally as the ‘Queen of the Isle of Wight’. Borthwood Forest is now represented by the very small extent of Borthwood Copse, in National Trust ownership. It is not known to contain any physical evidence of medieval hunting activities.
It is unclear whether Parkhurst Forest and Borthwood Forest were covered by forest law but both were possessions of the lords of the Island and then of the Crown. Parkhurst was not disafforested and enclosed until after an Act of Parliament in 1812.
31 deer parks and 71 ‘hays’ (thought to be similar to deer parks) are recorded in Domesday Book (1086) throughout England. These and other sources of evidence show that by the time of the Norman Conquest special enclosures for deer were being constructed, as well as lodges for those charged with their management.
The number of deer parks grew steadily in the two centuries after the Norman Conquest with park ownership spreading from the ranks of the aristocracy to wealthier manorial lords. These parks were important status symbols indicating wealth and power. Typically, deer parks were securely enclosed within substantial boundaries or ‘pales’ which were normally banks topped by fences, hedges or walls with a ditch on the inside.
John Speed’s 1611 map of the Isle of Wight shows deer parks enclosed by park pales at Watchingwell and Wootton (both in the ‘Northern Lowlands’) and an unenclosed park at St Lawrence in the ‘Undercliff’.
Watchingwell Park is named in Domesday Book as the ‘King’s park’, making it is a very early example of an English deer park.
By the C13 ‘New Park’ and ‘Little Park’ existed on the east side of the park. These seem to have been distinct agricultural holdings in separate ownerships, rather than being divisions of the deer park. However, Little Park, at least, seems to have been taken out of Watchingwell Park.
Charles I built a hunting lodge in Watchingwell Park on the site of what is now Great Park Farmhouse. In 1650 Watchingwell Park still contained ‘nine score deer’. By the end of the C18 the park had been divided into fields.
Watchingwell Park formed a detached part of the medieval parish of St Nicholas and modern field boundaries preserve the outline of the park. Indeed, part of the deer park boundary was an administrative division between the boroughs of Medina and South Wight in the late C20. However, the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust has not yet surveyed these boundaries.
In 1298 there was a reference to a ‘free warren’ belonging to the lord of the manor at Wootton and it is possible that Wootton Park, shown on Speed’s map of 1611 may date from the C13 since medieval rabbit warrens were frequently located within deer parks. An early C19 map shows two keepers’ lodges at Wootton but it is not thought that any physical evidence of the park survives today.
Speed’s map shows St Laurence Park as occupying much of the Undercliff. No park pale is shown but the inner cliff would have formed a natural barrier. The deer park at St Laurence may have had medieval origins but it is also possible that it was established by the Worsley family of Appuldurcombe in the C16. It may equate with ‘Old Park’, first recorded as a place-name within the Appuldurcombe estates in 1628. The core of St Laurence Park may have fallen roughly within the area of the C19 Old Park estate (LL).
Various sources provide evidence of additional medieval deer parks which are not shown on Speed’s 1611 map of the Isle of Wight.
The bishopric of Winchester was an important landowner on the Island, holding the manor of Swainston (near Calbourne) from before the Norman Conquest until the late C13. Surviving parts of the medieval manor house (LB II*) date from the C13. A medieval warren is thought to have existed on the bishop’s manor in this century. Rabbit warrens were the prerogative of the elite in medieval England and, like deer parks, were associated with high status residences. In the C14 Swainston was owned by the Earl of Salisbury and there is documentary evidence of a deer park within his manor. Future fieldwork could possibly locate the site of this deer park which may lie within the later designed landscape at Swainston (NHL).
There are documentary references to medieval or early post-medieval deer parks at Shalfleet, Kingston and Knighton.
Botanical evidence or landscape evidence suggests the presence of deer parks at North Park in Freshwater Parish and near Lee Farm in Shalfleet Parish.
Hunting was popular during the Roman period although no definite structural evidence of this activity has been found in England. Historical sources indicate that hunting was also popular during what is conventionally termed the Anglo-Saxon period in England. However, neither archaeological nor historical evidence suggests the presence of designed landscapes around high status houses during this period.
The English medieval kings had access to vast forest hunting grounds, some wooded, where Forest Law gave protection both to the deer and to the trees. The infrastructure of forests and chases (forests granted by the Crown to others) included structures such as lodges and boundary banks. Deer parks were typically much smaller areas of wood and grassland (mostly of 30-80 ha), located away from settlements and from the lord’s house on economically marginal land. It has been pointed out that deer parks were not synonymous with ‘hunting preserves’. They could be the scene of hunts but their confined space offered limited space for this activity and their real purpose was the supply of venison, wood and timber.
On the Isle of Wight there were hunting forests at Parkhurst and Borthwood.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the Isle of Wight was an area of strategic military importance and was under the control of William Fitz Osbern, a close associate of William I. Following a brief period under direct royal control from 1075 to 1100 the lordship of the Island passed to the de Redvers family and remained with this family until the death of Isabella de Fortibus in 1293. After this period the captains and governors of the Island were appointed by the Crown.
The pre-Norman fortified site at Carisbrooke Castle (SM, LB I) was located on a chalk hill top dominating the surrounding land. This fortification was enlarged and strengthened by the Fitz Osbern and de Redvers families to become a strongly defended military site and an even stronger symbolic statement about the power of the lords of the Island.
The southern edge of Parkhurst Forest lay only a mile to the north of Carisbrooke Castle on the clays and gravels of the Northern Lowlands. The forest is not recorded until c.1200 but its existence as early as AD 986 can be inferred from a charter describing the boundaries of an estate at Watchingwell. The eastern boundary of Watchingwell is coterminous with what later documents reveal to be the western boundary of Parkhurst Forest.
Parkhurst Forest was used by the lords of the Island and later by the Crown for hunting purposes and the preservation of game, but early documentary sources provide evidence for other uses. Several manors had rights of common within the forest, only about one third of which was wooded.
The character and extent of Parkhurst Forest has been greatly affected by C19 century enclosure and by later Forestry Commission management but there is some physical evidence of its former role as a hunting forest. The northern boundary appears to be medieval. Much of it is followed by a bank and ditch which may have been built to control the movements of deer although further study of this feature is needed. Inside the forest is an enclosure which is first shown on a map of 1770. This enclosure formerly contained a Keeper’s lodge and could be a medieval or early-post medieval feature.
Borthwood Forest (lying on greensand soils to the south of the East Wight Chalk Ridge) was attached to the Lordship of the Island and it is possible that the place- name ‘Queen’s Bower’ adjacent to Borthwood Copse may actually be a reference to a hunting lodge or viewing tower used by Isabella de Fortibus. She was the last member of the de Redvers family to rule the Island, was probably the most powerful woman in C13 England and was considered locally as the ‘Queen of the Isle of Wight’. Borthwood Forest is now represented by the very small extent of Borthwood Copse, in National Trust ownership. It is not known to contain any physical evidence of medieval hunting activities.
It is unclear whether Parkhurst Forest and Borthwood Forest were covered by forest law but both were possessions of the lords of the Island and then of the Crown. Parkhurst was not disafforested and enclosed until after an Act of Parliament in 1812.
31 deer parks and 71 ‘hays’ (thought to be similar to deer parks) are recorded in Domesday Book (1086) throughout England. These and other sources of evidence show that by the time of the Norman Conquest special enclosures for deer were being constructed, as well as lodges for those charged with their management.
The number of deer parks grew steadily in the two centuries after the Norman Conquest with park ownership spreading from the ranks of the aristocracy to wealthier manorial lords. These parks were important status symbols indicating wealth and power. Typically, deer parks were securely enclosed within substantial boundaries or ‘pales’ which were normally banks topped by fences, hedges or walls with a ditch on the inside.
John Speed’s 1611 map of the Isle of Wight shows deer parks enclosed by park pales at Watchingwell and Wootton (both in the ‘Northern Lowlands’) and an unenclosed park at St Lawrence in the ‘Undercliff’.
Watchingwell Park is named in Domesday Book as the ‘King’s park’, making it is a very early example of an English deer park.
By the C13 ‘New Park’ and ‘Little Park’ existed on the east side of the park. These seem to have been distinct agricultural holdings in separate ownerships, rather than being divisions of the deer park. However, Little Park, at least, seems to have been taken out of Watchingwell Park.
Charles I built a hunting lodge in Watchingwell Park on the site of what is now Great Park Farmhouse. In 1650 Watchingwell Park still contained ‘nine score deer’. By the end of the C18 the park had been divided into fields.
Watchingwell Park formed a detached part of the medieval parish of St Nicholas and modern field boundaries preserve the outline of the park. Indeed, part of the deer park boundary was an administrative division between the boroughs of Medina and South Wight in the late C20. However, the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust has not yet surveyed these boundaries.
In 1298 there was a reference to a ‘free warren’ belonging to the lord of the manor at Wootton and it is possible that Wootton Park, shown on Speed’s map of 1611 may date from the C13 since medieval rabbit warrens were frequently located within deer parks. An early C19 map shows two keepers’ lodges at Wootton but it is not thought that any physical evidence of the park survives today.
Speed’s map shows St Laurence Park as occupying much of the Undercliff. No park pale is shown but the inner cliff would have formed a natural barrier. The deer park at St Laurence may have had medieval origins but it is also possible that it was established by the Worsley family of Appuldurcombe in the C16. It may equate with ‘Old Park’, first recorded as a place-name within the Appuldurcombe estates in 1628. The core of St Laurence Park may have fallen roughly within the area of the C19 Old Park estate (LL).
Various sources provide evidence of additional medieval deer parks which are not shown on Speed’s 1611 map of the Isle of Wight.
The bishopric of Winchester was an important landowner on the Island, holding the manor of Swainston (near Calbourne) from before the Norman Conquest until the late C13. Surviving parts of the medieval manor house (LB II*) date from the C13. A medieval warren is thought to have existed on the bishop’s manor in this century. Rabbit warrens were the prerogative of the elite in medieval England and, like deer parks, were associated with high status residences. In the C14 Swainston was owned by the Earl of Salisbury and there is documentary evidence of a deer park within his manor. Future fieldwork could possibly locate the site of this deer park which may lie within the later designed landscape at Swainston (NHL).
There are documentary references to medieval or early post-medieval deer parks at Shalfleet, Kingston and Knighton.
Botanical evidence or landscape evidence suggests the presence of deer parks at North Park in Freshwater Parish and near Lee Farm in Shalfleet Parish.