Deal Castle, Victoria Road, Deal, Kent: Tree-Ring Analysis of Oak and Pine Timbers
Author(s): Robert Howard, Alison Arnold, Cathy Tyers
Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on 51 of the 54 core samples obtained from Deal Castle, as well as the measurements, carried out in situ, of three boards from a door. This analysis produced six oak site chronologies, accounting for 21 samples, and one pine chronology comprising six samples. The first dated oak site chronology, comprising all six consoles to the ground floor of the Central Tower, is 137 rings long, these spanning AD 1465–1601. Interpretation of the sapwood gives these oak timbers an estimated felling date range of AD 1604–29. The second dated oak chronology comprises two door boards. One board is derived from a timber likely to have been felled after AD 1452, while the timber for the second board is likely to have been felled after AD 1535. The single pine chronology, comprising six samples from the timbers of the Gatehouse roof also dates, its 170 rings spanning the years AD 1520–1689. Interpretation of the sapwood on these samples would give these timbers, probably imported from Scandinavia, an estimated felling date in the late-seventeenth century. Twenty six measured oak samples, one measured pine sample, and one of the boards measured in situ remain ungrouped and undated.
- Report Number:
- 39/2015
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 60
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
