Introduction
In the medieval and early modern England, deer parks were enclosed areas containing a deer. The area was bounded by a ditch and bank in a park pale made of wood. The ditch was usually on the inside to increase the effective height; some had deer leaps where an external ramp and inner ditch were constructed on a grander scale hence allowing deer to enter the park but prevent them from leaving. Most deer parks were constructed during the Anglo-Saxon era and were often named as Hays (Hall et al., 2014). After William seized England in 1066, deer parks flourished under the Normans, and they became popular among the country’s landed gentry. The doomsday novel 1086 has a record of 36 deer parks.
In the beginning, Norman kings allowed deer to be hunted and kept under the forest law and eventually allowed members of the senior clergy to maintain deer parks. At the peak of Norman’s rule, deer parks may have covered about 2% of England. After the civil war, the number of deer parks declined, and during the 18th century, more deer parks were landscaped and enlarged by money from trade in the British Empire (Henry, 2016). Deer parks have survived throughout into the 20th century; they are notable features which through lack of plowing and development has often helped preserve key features in the parks including abandoned villages, barrows and Roman roads. Since the early medieval times, the deer was hunted as a source of food and also represented a symbol of human nature of authority over nature. In the recent past, many historians turned their attention to deer parks in a bid to preserve diverse habitats. The primary purpose of this argumentative essay is to cast further light on the change in purpose and appearance of deer parks between medieval and early modern period, and what this shows us bout change in the conception of landscapes and expression of elite identity.
According to Mileson (2014), deer parks were established for hunting, Rackham gave a more pragmatic view by saying, “the introduction of the fallow deer into the English countryside the led the Normans actually establish a new means of exploiting land, the medieval park was mainly utilitarian enterprise, a special kind of farm producing venison,”(2013, p. 240). Liddiard and Williamson agreed to this view and maintained that every feature of the deer park was involved with the production. This view confirmed that belief that deer parks were made for providing food and recreational hunting for the elite in the then society. During the 16th century, an internal war occurred in England both national and locally. The wars ended in the Bosworth battleground where Richard III the king was killed and the throne overtaken by the new King Henry Tudor. The self-proclaimed Welsh prince of Shropshire was a drive from his strongholds, but Henry was concerned about the lawlessness of Welsh Marches until he pushed for the enactment of the Wales Act of 1536-43. These laws effectively established the English system in Wales. Henry made sure monasteries were dissolution and their land sold to the high class of gentry and yeomen. These change in social status opened up innovative ideas about agricultural and economic development and a wider spread of information through the printing press. In this developing world of capitalism, the deer parks seemed like an anachronism. Many Tudor kings loved hunting. Hence they served as an example to those the elite. Mowl (2014) writes that by 1500 there were about 3000 deer parks in England and served as the country’s leisure industry.
Richard Lacon, the owner of Willey Park, was among those who benefited from the sale of monastic lands. The Prior of Wenlock in 1262 enclosed four acres of land to make a deer park. In the early 14th century, two parks had already been created, in 1537, Lacon bought 60 acres of abbey lands to the Willey deer park. In 1618, the park comprised 432 acres, Manor was bought from Sir Francis Lacon for 7000 euros by John weld. He made a contemporary description of the park, “one fayer house built most parte of stone, and the court walled about with brick with all offices fit for the habitation of a war man having become the ancient site or dwelling of a knight.”(2015 p.140). Weld acquired a further 400 acres, introduced deer and new fishponds. In an important memorandum book in 1631, Weld noted its extent of 3300 timbers and proposed the introduction of deer, swans, bees, fish and horses for breeding there. Redistribution o monastic lands brought about change in the spatial relationship between deer parks and residence. Nonetheless, the newly converted monastic lands were few compared to the number of impressive new timber, stone and brick mansions built in the Shropshire between the 16th century and the civil war. In his book, Tudor (2010) notes that “hunting moved up naturally from being the honest pursuit of food to that most contentious of pleasures, the ritual destruction of animals, a sport not simply for participants but for spectators.”(p.272). changes appear to have happened in the use of deer parks in Tudor and Elizabeth period in England.
Figure 1 (survey of uptown deer parks during Tudor era)
During Queen Elizabeth’s era, grand mansions were built by the elite members of local society and the deer parks were considered a symbol of wealth and status. For us to assess the balance of old and new parks, their use, and location, we will look at evidence from country maps and additional evidence from estate maps. The new parks were members of legal professions and cloth trade. Landowners were eager to draw attention to their new estate and the creation of new deer parks served this purpose (Mowl, 2014 p.82). A large number of the new deer parks were collected in the hundred of Condover, particularly towards the river Severn. The area was selected due to its tactical position as a major economic and social centre. John Leland, an explorer in the 1540s, commented that it was, “good ground, corn, and grass, but not great wood in sight.”(276). The primary evidence of a deer park created by Pitchford is found in a document showing Lord Newport in 1638 presented Francis Ottley with deer from Ercall park to which he refers to as a ‘new deer park’(278). The first county map to show this park is the Rocque (1752), who shows it as an enclosed 191-acre land. It shows the park as a self-contained area, and a deer is depicted grazing.
William Leighton, the chief justice of Wales, built the plaish manor house and a deer park. The park was used for horse pasture in the mid-17th century, and as general field by 1671, but subdivided in 1675-6. This would only mean that it was used as a deer park for less than 100 years, and before the civil war, the family found it impossible to retain the deer. An explanation for this is that William’s descendant was imprisoned for debt in 1610, and by 1758, the plaish manor was heavily mortgaged (Rakcham, 2015 p.116). After twelve years, the estate was sold to Sir Rowland who established a deer park on the Bretton property. Most new owners of country houses were trumped up gentry, and it would be incorrect to conclude that the aristocratic families of England had all disappeared after the war of roses. The existing landowners took advantage of this opportunity and purchased new lands by the 16th century after selling monasteries, hence were able to create new deer parks. Families such as the cressets, Vernon, talbots, corbets, and actons increased their estates through marriages and judicious purchases. A new park was established in 1517 from arable land, according to Wolsey’s Inquisition of enclosures. The park existed up to 1647 when a survey by John Browne showed the park and buildings in the vicinity of the church. Another park by Robert Cressett described as “a park of enclosed ground for deer.”(p. 294), was to be re-stocked after the civil war.
About 1588, Robert Corbet built a mansion for his family, in the map, there is evidence that a deer park was established the same time as the mansion. Based on field names studied by Foxall from the 19th century, the deer park appears to have lain approximately one mile south of the house. Henry (2016), shows in his document that the park was still stocked with deer in 1671, in his diary, he wrote, “with wife at stanwardine I accompanied them, killing a buck in their park, far from being taken with any great delight or pleasure in ye sport, they spent part of him to broad-oke after us” (p. 296). This comment depicts the attitude to hunting and hospitality which existed from medieval times. By 1752, in a Rocque map, there was no deer in the Park, since the estate was sold in 1701.
Conclusion
From c. 1500 to c. 1914, deer parks changed in appearance and purpose because of the changes in social circles and the civil war. Before 1500, deer parks were established for hunting and as a means of food production and agriculture, however, after the British invasion in England and during the Tudor kings’ era, the elite in the society took over the deer parks. They purchased large acres of lands owned by monarchs before the invasion and built mansions and deer parks, which were used for leisure and hunting as a sport. Earlier deer parks only contained deer, but much later in the 17th century, the parks were used for horse pasture and fish keeping by the members of the elite community. The gradually reduced in size, some from 200 acres to 50 acres, like the longnor deer park.
References
Hall, D., Malloy, K., and Oram, R., 2014. Preliminary Fieldwork and Analysis of Three Scottish Medieval ‘Deer Parks.' Deer and People, p.240.
Henry, P., 2016. Oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea procession) in deer parks. Veterinary Record, 177(8), pp.208-208.
Mileson, S., 2014. Shropshire Deer Parks c. 1500-c. 1914 Recreation, Status and Husbandry (Doctoral dissertation, University of East Anglia).
Mowll, T., 2014. Where we are with Wood-Pasture: Two Recent Books and the Current State of Research. Landscapes, 17(1), pp.82-88.
Rackham, J., 2015. The impact of hunting on European woodland from medieval to modern times. Europe’s Changing Woods and Forests: From Wildwood to Managed Landscapes, CAB International, Wallingford, pp.116-126.
Tudor, M., 2010. Deer and Humans in South Wales during the Roman and Medieval Periods. Deer and People, p.187.
Weld, N., 2015. Wild to domestic and back again: the dynamics of fallow deer management in medieval England (c. 11th-16th century AD). STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, 2(1), pp.113-126.
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