THE MEDIEVAL DEER PARK – By Jenny Burt

Northamptonshire Gardens Trust - June, 1999.

A synopsis of a lecture by Tony Squires, a landscape historian, and member of the Leicestershire and Rutland Gardens Trust, on the subject of the Medieval Deer Park.

The concept of the deer park was introduced by the Normans and formed an integral part of the manorial system, playing a major role in the economy and indeed the leisure pursuits of the Lord of the Manor. In Midland areas, the Manorial estate was practically self-sufficient, the land had to provide arable, meadows and woodland, and deer parks were formed only on those estates of the very rich, nobility and the great clerics, who spent much of their time hunting. Land of poor fertility was utilised, and no parks are to be found in areas of high production. The Earl of Cornwall had 21 parks spread over the country whilst the Bishop of Durham had 13.

The deer parks were often at some distance from the manor house and might have a small hunting lodge either within or on their boundaries. (At Drayton, Northamptonshire, the old deer park was actually in the parish of Slipton). Tony pointed out that Northamptonshire was covered in vast tracts of woodland, much of which has continued almost to the present day, for example Rockingham, Salcey and Whittlewood forests. These forests were originally the preserve of the King and were governed by Forest Law, much resented by the nobility, and the red, roe and fallow deer and the boar were hunted by the King, the Huntsman's role being to lead the King and his lords towards the quarry.

Not all of the forest was woodland. Parts were deliberately devoid of trees for the purpose of providing grazing areas, known as 'hays' or lawns, and later landscaped parklands can frequently be traced back to these areas with the mansion house built over or onto the hunting lodge (e.g. Wakefield Lawn, near Towcester). In addition, the deer park may have a 'warren' or 'coneygarth' where rabbits were raised for food, sometimes surrounded by a moated ditch. (There is an area adjacent to the old Drayton deer park, known as the nunnery, which in all probability was a moated warren).

Tony pointed out the characteristics of the medieval deer park. The area was fenced around with a deerproof boundary, an internal ditch about six feet deep and an outer bank of around six feet in height with a fence or pale along its top. Thus deer could leap into the park, sometimes over a purpose built deer leap, but could not escape. The parks were often round or oval in shape to minimise on fencing, whilst sometimes part of the boundary was terminated by water. The area contained within the boundaries averaged about 200 acres, divided into woodland and hays.

Since the King owned all the deer, licences were granted by him to enable areas to be emparked by his subjects, and from these licences we can gain some knowledge of the number of parklands. During the first period of the Norman conquest there were few parklands, but these numbers increased until the peak prior to the Black Death of 1347, when a decline set in, only the larger deer parks surviving. Professor Leonard Cantor in his Gazetteer of Deer Parks listed 42 for Northamptonshire, the earliest being that of Higham Ferrers, whose boundaries are coterminous with the county boundary of Bedfordshire.

Tony suggested we searched Northamptonshire for examples of medieval deer parks using the clues such as field names including the word ‘Park’

September 10, 1999