When The King Shot Thousands Of Rabbits

Once valued for fur, meat and sport, rabbits later became such a problem they were discussed in Parliament, says Simon Reinhold

- Simon Reinhold

No other animal in the British countryside has played both hero and villain like the rabbit. The great warrens of the sandy Brecks in East Anglia were constructed to serve the fur and felt industry and cheap, plentiful meat was a bonus.

The free-draining soil of Breckland was perfect for farming rabbits, but they were rarely, if ever, shot inside the warren’s boundary fence. A far higher price was commanded for rabbits that had been caught either by long-netting or ferreting.

Rabbits have been escaping farmed enclosures since their introduction by the Romans, but it was not until the 12th century and another round of importation from the Continent that they began to establish a significant feral population.

Changes in farming practices during the agricultural revolution radically affected numbers of rabbits The newly introduced crop rotation system provided year-round food and, because they can breed at six months old and can have four to six litters a year, the population exploded. This was at a time when the economic heat had gone out of the great warrens and their fences were left crumbling.

The record bag for rabbits was established at Rhiwlas, in Wales to the west of Oswestry, where rabbit farmer, shoot owner, and the organiser of Britain’s first sheepdog trials, RJ Lloyd-Price, felt it necessary to tackle his escapees. On one of his days in 1885, nine Guns shot 5,086, with the Marquis of Ripon accounting for 920. This was to stand until 7 October 1898, when the Duke of Marlborough shot 6,943 at Blenheim in Oxfordshire.

“During World War II, the rabbit was a serious concern”

Reducing numbers