TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF TIMBERS FROM CHURCH HOUSE, EDENBRIDGE, KENT
Author(s): Robert Howard, R R Laxton, Cliff Litton
Thirty-two samples from this building at Edenbridge were analysed by tree-ring dating. This analysis produced four site chronologies. The first, consisting of ten samples and having 162 rings, spans the period AD 1377 - AD 1538. The second site chronology consists of two samples and has 70 rings. This site chronology failed to date. The third site chronology, also of two samples, has 86 rings spanning the period AD 1417 - Ad 1502. The fourth and final site chronology is made up of three samples with 125 rings spanning the period AD 1250 - AD 1374. On the basis of the dated samples and the relative positions of the heartwood/sapwood boundaries, it would appear that some, possibly a majority, of the sampled timbers from inserted floors were felled in AD 1505. Some other timbers from these floors were felled later, possibly in the period AD 1509 - 29. At least one timber, inserted into a wall, is estimated to have been felled in the period AD 1543 - 63. Three timbers from the primary phase of construction have tentative felling dates estimated to be in the range AD 1382 - AD 1402, AD 1356 - 76, and not before AD 1389. It would thus appear that a late-fourteenth century building was altered in the early-sixteenth century.
- Report Number:
- 34/2000
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 37
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
