TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF TIMBERS FROM THE HARWICH CRANE AND WHEELHOUSE, HARWICH, ESSEX
Author(s): Dr Martin Bridge
The date of construction of the crane at Harwich has been a subject of speculation for many years, some believing that it was made in the seventeenth century. More recent studies of the structure suggested that it was contemporaneous with the wheelhouse, an interesting structure in its own right, displaying unusual carpentry features not from the traditions of domestic architecture. This dendrochronological study revealed that both crane and wheelhouse used very fast-grown oaks with few annual rings. The wheelhouse contained some re-used elements such as ships' knees and also some softwood timbers. Only two samples, one from the crane jib and one from the wheelhouse, were dated. The wheelhouse utilised timbers felled in the mid-eighteenth century, most likely in the period AD 1739-69. The present jib yielded a sequence which dated to AD 1734-83, which gives a most likely felling period of AD 1792 - AD 1824. There is therefore no evidence to support either the contemporaneity of the wheelhouse and crane, nor their possible seventeenth-century origin.
- Report Number:
- 2/2000
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 10
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology
