Oakham Castle, Castle Lane, Oakham, Rutland: Tree-Ring Analysis of Timbers
Author(s): Robert Howard, Alison Arnold
Analysis by dendrochronology of 69 samples from timbers within Oakham Castle has produced three dated site chronologies, indicating that timbers of at least four separate phases of felling are to be found in the hall, north aisle, and south aisle roofs. The earliest phase is represented by a group of reused timbers with an estimated felling date of AD 1160–85 (although one timber might have been felled slightly earlier). It is very likely that these are remnants of the original roof and as such make Oakham the earliest hall of any English castle to survive so completely. The next phase of felling is represented by a further group of reused, though probably coeval, later sixteenth-century timbers, with an estimated felling date in the range AD 1568–93. As such these timbers denote a hitherto unsuspected felling phase. A third phase of felling is represented by another group of broadly coeval, early seventeenth-century timbers, these having an estimated felling date in the range AD 1621–44 representing an early alteration phase of the hall. The latest phase of felling is represented by a group of timbers which show no evidence for reuse and which almost certainly belong to the re-roofing of the hall. This group of timbers appears to have been felled in the mid-AD 1730s.
- Report Number:
- 23/2013
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 56
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building