12 Broad Street, 11, 13 & 13A High Street, Launceston, Cornwall: Tree-Ring Analysis of Oak Timbers
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard, Cathy Tyers
Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on 34 of the 42 samples obtained from different timbers in this building, eight samples having too few rings for reliable dating. This analysis produced a single site chronology comprising 14 samples from the roof and cellar areas. This site chronology is 88 rings long, these rings dated as spanning the years AD 1496–1583. A further single sample was dated individually, its 60 rings spanning the years AD 1468–1527. Although one timber from the cellar, estimated to have been felled in the period of AD 1542–67, might be earlier, other cellar timbers probably date to the last quarter of the sixteenth century; one cellar timber was certainly felled in AD 1582 with another cellar timber certainly being felled in AD 1583. The timbers of the roof have an estimated felling date of AD 1575–1600. Two other site chronologies, both comprising two samples each, and being 54 and 65 rings long respectively, were also created. Neither of these site chronologies could be dated, although it is likely that the timbers represented by each pair of samples are coeval. Of the 34 measured samples, 15 remain ungrouped and undated.
- Report Number:
- 74/2022
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 46
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
