THE TREE-RING DATING OF 119-23 UPPER SPON STREET, COVENTRY, WARWICKSHIRE
Author(s): Daniel Miles, Michael Worthington
Ten timbers were sampled at 119-23 Upper Spon Street, Coventry. All ten dated and were combined to form a 149-year site chronology UPPRSPON, spanning the years AD 1306-AD 1454. The completeness of the final sapwood ring on eight of the timbers showed they were felled between winter AD 1453/4 and the winter of AD 1454/5. The outer rings of the remaining two samples were unmeasurable, but the ring counts have shown them to be contemporaneous with the other samples. The dated timbers include a reset axial beam in number 120 Upper Spon Street was also shown to be contemporary with the primary construction phase of the terrace. The tree-ring results indicate that the present building is approximately 45 years later that the AD 1410 date previously proposed from documentary evidence. The tree-ring chronology UPPRSPON was found to match remarkably well with another unpublished site chronology from 8-10 Much Park Street, produced by the late Dr J M Fletcher, thereby confirming the dating of the hitherto tentatively dated chronology.
- Report Number:
- 84/2000
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 17
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
