St Mary’s Church, Winkfield, Bracknell Forest, Berkshire : Tree-Ring Analysis of Timbers
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard
It is believed that the wooden tower of St Mary’s Church, Winkfield, was rebuilt in brick in AD 1629, this new tower having a flat roof possibly reusing earlier timbers. Later, at an unknown date, a pyramidal pitched roof was placed over the flat roof. During recent (AD 2006) repair works to the tower, core samples were obtained from 26 timbers of the two roofs. The analysis of 16 of these samples (10 samples being unsuitable for dating) produced a single site chronology comprising 9 samples, having an overall length of 95 rings. These rings are dated as spanning AD 1534–1628. Interpretation of the sapwood on the dated samples would indicate that the timbers represented, all but one of which are from the flat roof, were felled in late AD 1628- early AD 1629. A further, single, sample from a timber of the pitched roof was dated individually. This single sample has 96 rings, dated as spanning AD 1676–1765, the timber represented having an estimated felling date in the range AD 1780–1805. This may possibly represent the construction date of the pitched roof, but, being based on the dating of one sample, this remains uncertain. No material has been detected in this programme of tree-ring analysis which might be from the earlier wooden tower.
- Report Number:
- 66/2006
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 17
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
