TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF TIMBERS FROM MIDDRIDGE GRANGE, SHILDON ROAD, HEIGHINGTON, DURHAM
Author(s): Alison Arnold, Robert Howard, R R Laxton, Cliff Litton
Ten samples were taken from the timbers of the south wing of the original manor house. One of these was not analysed because of its short ring-width sequence. The analysis carried out on the remaining nine samples resulted in the construction of a single site chronology. This site chronology, MRGASQ01, of 165 rings was dated to a first-ring date of AD 1395 and a last-ring date of AD 1559. Three of the five samples which make up this site chronology have the heartwood/sapwood boundary ring, the average of which is AD 1554 which gives an estimated felling date range of AD 1569-94 for the three timbers represented. The other two samples do not retain the heartwood/sapwood boundary ring but they could be contemporary with the AD 1569-94 felling date estimated. A further sample, MRG-A04, was successfully dated individually, to a first-ring date of AD 1470 and a last-ring date of AD 1558. The heartwood/sapwood boundary ring date is AD 1554 giving an estimated felling date for the timber represented, again within the range AD 1569-94. The analysis has resulted in six samples being successfully dated. Four of these are from timbers felled some time between AD 1569-94, with the other two from timbers which could also conceivably have been felled at this time. This indicates a construction date for the original manor house in the second-half of the sixteenth century.
- Report Number:
- 89/2001
- Series:
- CfA Reports
- Pages:
- 13
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
