Deer In Nottinghamshire

Chris Manning from the British Deer society came to give us a talk (complete with sound effects) on the Deer of Nottinghamshire on the 10th January and in doing so dispelled a lot of myths and misconceptions about the Deer in our County and indeed world wide.
Chris has been studying Deer for a long time and has completed a degree on Landscape Ecology, where he focused on deer parks in his dissertation.

Your twenty deer facts

Rudolph is a she.
Both male and female reindeer carry antlers but it is only male reindeer who lose their antlers at Christmas. So If Rudolph has antlers, he must be a she!

Reindeer/caribou and mousse/elk are American/European names for the two species.

Deer antlers are bone and once grown, die. This is the only occurrence of dead bone remaining attached to living bone (the skull) and is not fully understood.

The ‘bud’ that antlers grow from is called the pedicle.
The pedicle can be removed and grafted onto bone in other part of the skeleton and still produce an antler.

UK is home to seven species of wild deer.
Red deer; Fallow deer; Roe deer; Sika; ; Muntjac and Chinese Water deer. Plus Reindeer can be seen in the Cairngorms in Scotland and Pere David's deer exist in deer park with a few that are living feral

Only Red and Roe Deer are native. Red Deer rut and chase the Hinds and can have a range of 50 miles.

The venison of Fallow deer was considered better than Red during the Middle Ages, however, Red deer’s larger carcase size makes them more economic to farm.

Fallow deer rut on stands where they wait for females to approach them.

Fallow deer were probably introduced by the Romans, the current population was introduced by the Norman’s

Fallow deer were almost extinct and their genetic diversity is very narrow.

Fallow deer have great diversity of colouration.

White Fallow deer numbers are limited because they are visible to poachers.

Fallow deer formerly lived in deer parks and have stayed local to these after release/escape.

Roe deer almost became extinct due to changes in their protection and were wiped out in England.

The present population has spread from Scotland.

This population is being met by a wave of introduced Roe deer who are spreading up from East Anglia.

Muntjac bark like a dog.

Sika are interbreeding with Red Deer.

We have half the world population of of Chinese Water deer.

Chinese Water deer were believed to be primitive deer due to their tusks and lack of antlers. Studies of DNA have shown that they are a recent species, suggesting that antlers are going out of fashion!

 

Preliminary List Deer Parks in Nottinghamshire Medieval to Date

	Park	Inparked	Ownership	Deparked
	Annesley	1673	Patrick Vicount Chaworth	>1867
	Bestwood (Arnold)	c.1222	Crown	>1664
	Bilborough	1302	Robert deStrelley	<1576
	Bulwell	1609	Sir John Bryon	<1576
	Bunny	1680		<1867
	Carlton in Lindrick	1231	Robert Lupo	<1576
	Cartergate and Appletongate	1776		<1576
	Clipstone (Clypston)	1176	Crown	1642
	Colwick	1277	William de Colwick	1820
	Epperstone	1330	John Tibetot	<1576
	Finningley	<1576		>1576
	Greasley	1339		<1576
	Grimston Hill (in Wellow)	1229	Jordan Foliot	<1576
	Gringley on the Hill	1266	William de Furnivall	>1576
	Grove	1299	Robert de Morteyn	<1576
	Haughton			<1576
	Hexgrave (Bellow)	1259	Archbishop of York	<1867
	Hockerwood (in Southwell)	1340	Archbishop of York	<1867
	Hodsock	1250	Crown	>1677
	Houghton	<1576	Holles's Earls Clare/Dukes Newcastle	<1576
	Kelham	1160		<1576
	Kingshaugh (in Darlton)	1211	Crown	<1576
	Kingston on Soar	1296	14C Nicholas le Taylor	<1576
	Kirby in Ashfield	1306	Robert de Stutevill	<1576
	Kneeshall (Knesall)	1260	Earl of Winchester	>1576
	Langwith	1334	Ralph Basset	<1576
	Laxton	c1190	Ralph FitzStephen, licence to impark	<1576
	New/Little Park (in Southwell)		Archbishop of York	<1867
	Newhaggee	<1540		<1576
	Newstead	<1677	William Lord Bryon	1750
	Norwood (in Southwell)	1388	Archbishop of York	<1867
	Nottingham	1195	Crown	1717/1720
	Nuthall	1334	John de Cokefield	<1576
	Rainworth	<1892	Joseph Whitaker	c1940
	Rufford	<1576	Henry Savile	>1867
	Saundby	1283	Robert deSaundby	<1576
	Scrooby	1270/1313	Archbishop of York	>1540
	South Muskham	1148	Hugh de Muschamp	<1576
	Southwell	1330	Archbishop of York	<1867
	Strelley	1302	Robert de Strelley	<1576
	Teversal	1334	Thomas Batty	<1576
	Thoresby	>1576	Lord Manvers	Current
	Tuxford	1272	John de Lexington	<1576
	Warsop (Worksop)	1291	Margery de Merlay	<1867
	Welbeck	1301		Current
	West Markham	1301	Agnes de St. Cross	<1576
	Winkburn???	1548	'le Parke'	<1576
	Wiverton (Bingham)	1446	Thomas Chaworth	1640/50
	Wollaton	1580		Current
	Worksop	1195	14C Thomas de Furnivall	>1576

 

References:

Brown, C. 1896. A History of Nottinghamshire, http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/default.htm

Cantor, L. 1983. The Medieval Parks of England, a Gazetteer, Loughborough University of Technology.

Saxton, C. Christopher Saxton's 16th Century Maps, Chatsworth Library, 1992.

Shirley, E. P. 1867. English Deer Parks, John Murray.

Thanks again to Chris for a fasinating and well presented talk.

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