Hi wuzzie
So sad to hear about the hoglets. That must have been very distressing for you.
I wouldn’t think living near Winchester would rule out foxes. These days, it seems, you are more likely to see foxes in towns than in the country.
There are things you can do to deter rats, such as fill in bolt holes scare them away every time you see them, etc. Mainly to make sure they can’t find any food. There’s no point them visiting if they can’t access any food. But have you actually seen any rats?
This old post has some links of other old posts re. rats which might have something that you find useful: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-probelm/
