The Old Farmhouse, Incott Farm, Sampford Courtenay, Okehampton, Devon: Tree Ring Analysis of Timbers
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard
Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on samples taken from various timbers within this building. Sample INC-F05, taken from the fireplace lintel, was found to span the period AD 1439–1505; interpretation of the heartwood/sapwood boundary on this sample suggested the timber represented was felled within the range AD 1518–43. Sample INC-F06, taken from a door jamb, was found to span the period AD 1395–1456, with the timber represented having a terminus post quem date for felling of AD 1471. A site sequence containing three samples is undated; interpretation of the relative heartwood/sapwood boundary ring positions of the samples suggests two separate felling dates are represented by these three timbers. Prior to the tree-ring analysis being undertaken, this building was thought to be earlysixteenth century, with some late sixteenth or early-seventeenth century alterations. The fireplace lintel is now known to date to the first half of the sixteenth century. There was a small possibility that a doorframe was constructed in the fourteenth century. This has not been supported by the dendrochronology, as one of the door jambs is now known to have been felled in the late-fifteenth century at the earliest.
- Report Number:
- 33/2008
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 29
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
