Great Gransden Windmill, Mill Road, Great Gransden, Cambridgeshire: Further Tree-ring Dating and Oxygen Isotope Dendrochronology of Oak Timbers
Author(s): Dr Martin Bridge, Cathy Tyers, Neil J Loader, Danny McCarroll, Darren Davies, Giles Young
Samples were taken from 18 timbers forming various elements of the mill, including two ex situ timbers, a brake handle, and an offcut found during ongoing repairs. Documentary evidence suggests that the mill was present in AD 1612, but the main post dated, by ring-width dendrochronology, to the mid-seventeenth century, and is likely to have been put in place at the same time as the cross-tree, which had a felling date of winter AD 1644/5I derived by isotope dendrochronology. The ex situ brake handle was dated isotopically to a felling date range of AD 1757–90I, and a sheer had a likely felling date range of AD 1771–1804 provided by ring-width dendrochronology, suggesting they may be contemporaneous. Three timbers from the buck were from trees felled in the first third of the nineteenth century, and the windshaft was from a tree likely felled in the mid-nineteenth century. An offcut dated using ring-width dendrochronology proved to be part of the modern repair programme with a felling date of after AD 1974.
- Report Number:
- 49/2022
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 36
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
