Church of St Lawrence, Dial Place, Warkworth, Northumberland: Tree-Ring Analysis of Timbers
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard
Analysis of 51 samples from St Lawrence’s Church, Warkworth, has resulted in the production of two dated site chronologies comprising seven and 29 samples, of overall length 217 and 120 rings, spanning the years AD 1174–1390, and AD 1324–1443 respectively. Three further site chronologies, comprising two samples each, 141, 97, and 80 rings long overall, remain undated. Interpretation of the sapwood on the dated samples indicates the earliest definite felling phase is represented by material from the bell frame, with two timbers felled in the mid-AD 1380s, with a third timber possibly coeval or slightly later. Two ceiling beams of the ‘winding chamber’ below the belfry have slightly later estimated felling dates in the range AD 1386–1411 and AD 1405–30 respectively. The next phase of felling is represented by the south aisle’s upper and lower roofs, these likely to have been cut as part of a single programme of felling spread over a small number of years in the late AD 1420s and early AD 1430s. The timbers of the Parvise roof, the latest episode of felling detected in this programme of analysis, were also cut as part of a single programme of felling in AD 1443. Seven samples remain ungrouped and undated.
- Report Number:
- 40/2010
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 55
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
