A warren is a network of wild

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

lagomorph The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae (pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (λαγ� ...

, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

concept of

free warren A free warren—often simply warren—is a type of franchise or privilege conveyed by a sovereign in medieval England to an English subject, promising to hold them harmless for killing game of certain species within a stipulated area, u ...

, which had been, essentially, the equivalent of a hunting license for a given

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

Architecture of the domestic warren

The cunicularia of the monasteries may have more closely resembled

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es or pens, than the open enclosures with specialized structures which the domestic warren eventually became. Such an enclosure or ''close'' was called a ''cony-garth'', or sometimes ''conegar'', ''coneygree'' or "bury" (from "burrow").

Moat and pale

To keep the rabbits from escaping, domestic warrens were usually provided with a fairly substantive moat, or ditch filled with water. Rabbits generally do not swim and avoid water. A ''

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'', or fence, was provided to exclude predators.

Pillow mounds

Mediaeval Rabbit Warren, Hollybush Hill - geograph

The most characteristic structure of the "cony-garth" ("rabbit-yard") is the pillow mound. These were "pillow-like", oblong mounds with flat tops, frequently described as being "cigar-shaped", and sometimes arranged like the letter ⟨E⟩ or into more extensive, interconnected rows. Often these were provided with pre-built, stone-lined tunnels. The preferred orientation was on a gentle slope, with the arms extending downhill, to facilitate drainage. The soil needed to be soft, to accommodate further burrowing. This type of architecture and animal husbandry has become obsolete, but numerous pillow mounds are still to be found in

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, some of them maintained by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, with the greatest density being found on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

Further evolution of the term

Ultimately, the term "warren" was generalized to include wild burrows. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'':

The word thus became used of a piece of ground preserved for these beasts of warren. It is now applied loosely to any piece of ground, whether preserved or not, where rabbits breed. see also

The use is further extended to any system of burrows, e.g., " prairie dog warren". By 1649, the term was applied to inferior, crowded human accommodations and meant "cluster of densely populated living spaces" (''

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

''). Contemporarily, the leading use seems to be in the stock phrase "warren of cubicles" in the workplace.

References

{{Subterranea Livestock Agricultural buildings Buildings and structures used to confine animals Animals and humans Shelters built or used by animals Leporidae