TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF OAK TIMBERS FROM THE PRIOR'S HOUSE, CASTLE ACRE, NORFOLK

Author(s): Ian Tyers

The Prior's House at Castle Acre has a low-pitched roof or ceiling with a painted decorative scheme thought to commemorate the wedding of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in AD 1485. Above this is a roof primarily constructed from rafter couples with scissor bracing. This has hitherto been thought of as later since it covers the chimney associated with thelower roof or ceiling, and there is evidence on the gable ends of modifications associated with the insertion of the steeper pitched scissor-braced roof. Recently, there has been a suggestion that the scissor-braced roof predates the lower roof, which is instead an inserted ceiling. Sampling at this Scheduled Ancient Monument was commissioned to explore this possibility. The results indicate the lower roof or ceiling is late fourteenth century, and assuming the art-historical attribution of the painted ceiling is reliable, it seems likely that this was a later decorative scheme applied to an earlier structure. An alternative possibility is that these timbers are re-used. The upper roof contains timbers of a slightly later date, that is from the later fourteenth or early-fifteenth century. These do show some evidence of re-use. Two additional upper roof trusses of different design and constructed from markedly different timber could not be dated by dendrochronological methods. The presence of water damage on the upper surface of the beams of the decorated low-pitched roof or ceiling, and the absence of visible water damage on the upper roof timbers, may imply that the lower structure was covered by the upper roof at a later date, perhaps as a result of it beginning to leak and thus damage the decoration. The interpretation favoured by this report is that the upper roof is of post-Dissolution date but employing timber salvaged from the priory church or another monastic building.

Report Number:
46/2000
Series:
AML Reports (New Series)
Pages:
20
Keywords:
Dendrochronology Standing Building

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