Agricultural History Review, Volume 64 Part 1 (2016), pp. 1–16

The history of rabbits raised in rural warrens has been investigated, but little has been written about domesticated rabbits, raised for meat or fur. Such rabbits were often bred in London or its suburbs and, because little or no farmland was involved, production did not follow the pattern of alternative agriculture suggested by Joan Thirsk. Rabbits were raised in special pits, hutches, sheds, and courtyards. They also inhabited pens, lofts, cellars, backyards and rented rooms in lodging houses. Their owners ranged from full-time commercial breeders to poor people making a small amount of money from selling rabbits. The reports of trials conducted at the Old Bailey in the eighteenth century describe aspects of London rabbit-keeping in some detail and scattered references at earlier times reveal that the practice had been going on for some centuries. 

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