Walmer Castle, Kingsdown Road, Deal, Kent: Tree-Ring Analysis of Oak and Pine Timbers
Author(s): Robert Howard, Alison Arnold, Cathy Tyers
Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on a series of oak and pine samples obtained from various areas of Walmer Castle, including samples previously analysed from reused timbers in the Keep roof. This analysis produced one oak and one pine site chronology accounting for 11and six samples respectively. Interpretation of the sapwood on the dated oak timbers indicates that the majority of the reused timbers from the roof of the Keep are likely to have been felled in the range AD 1535–60, presumably for the Henrician construction during c AD 1539–42, although it is possible that one of the reused timbers could be slightly earlier. Two of the ceiling joists from the stockroom/utility room were felled in AD 1500–25 and AD 1533–58 respectively, whilst a third joist was unlikely to have been felled before AD 1475. A stud post to a ground-floor partition wall has an estimated felling date of AD 1490–1515. Interpretation of the sapwood on the pine timbers from the Gatehouse roof suggests that that they were likely to have been felled in the later-seventeenth century or possibly the early eighteenth century. Ten measured oak and two pine samples remain ungrouped and undated.
- Report Number:
- 40/2015
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 41
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
