Yarmouth Castle, Quay Street, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight: Tree-ring Analysis of Oak Lintels to two Gabled Windows of the Master Gunner’s Attic
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard
Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on core samples from lintels over the two gabled dormer windows to the Master Gunner’s Attic, on the second-floor north elevation (adjacent to the room known as the Long Room), at Yarmouth Castle, these timbers being exposed during opening-up works to investigate suspected timber defects. This analysis produced a single site chronology comprising both samples, this site chronology being 66 rings long overall. These 66 rings were dated as spanning the years AD 1711–76. It is not certain that either sample retains the heartwood/sapwood boundary (the surfaces of the timbers possibly having been denuded by rot and decay), and as such, and taking into account the last extant heartwood ring on each sample, it is felt probable that the east window lintel was not felled before AD 1791, while the west window lintel is unlikely to have been felled before AD 1778. Both may be coeval though, and hence neither felled before AD 1791.
- Report Number:
- 86/2024
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 35
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
