Thaxted Guildhall, Town Street, Thaxted, Essex: Tree-ring Analysis of Oak Timbers

Cores from 20 timbers and a slice from another timber taken for this study were analysed along with seven timbers sampled in the early 1990s. A total of 20 dated series were combined into a site master dating to the period AD 1339–1422, with an additional sequence independently dated to AD 1272–1334. One timber retained complete sapwood and was from a tree felled in the very early spring of AD1419. It appears that most of the dated samples form a coherent group, most likely felled at about the same time, although the dates of the final measured rings demonstrate that they cannot all have been felled at exactly the same time and some must have been felled in the 1420s at the earliest. The likely felling date range of AD 1421–53, modified to AD 1428–53 in light of one sample retaining the ring for AD 1428, and this not being the final ring, can be applied to most of the dated timbers

The Vicarage, Moat Lane (Chantry Lane), Towcester, Northamptonshire: tree-ring analysis of oak samples

A ground-floor fireplace lintel from a tree felled in the period AD 1574–9 may give an indication of the time when a house was originally constructed on this plot. The felling date of winter AD 1689/90 for timber in the roof fits well with the known history of the vicarage, which is thought to have been built by the vicar, Charles Palmer, who took up his position in AD 1688. A single rafter was found to be from a tree felled in winter AD 1824/5, giving a date for a previously unrecognised renovation or repair at the property

Peterborough Cathedral Nave Ceiling Conservation Project

The nave ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral is of international significance. Canted and constructed of wooden boards, it was erected and painted in the first half of the 13th century; it was subject to major repair and repainting twice, once in the 1740s and once in the 1830s. It had been much written about but had had very little research carried out on its physical structure, prior to this project. Concerns about the condition of the nave ceiling in the early 1990s made its conservation a priority, and in 1994 a major conservation programme was proposed, led by the cathedral architect Julian Limentani. Given the international status of the ceiling, the project was conceived from the first as a collaborative effort and, also from the first, there was an intention that the intellectual results of the project should be published. A team of experts was put together drawing on the expertise of the Cathedral's own staff, English Heritage (now Historic England), the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England (CFCE). They included paint and wood conservators, art historians and archaeologists, dendrochronologists and environmental specialists. Emergency Works begun in August 1997 by a combined team from The Perry Lithgow Partnership and Hugh Harrison Conservation provided the opportunity to establish the best methods for dealing with the flaking paint, and cleaning and conserving the structure as a whole.Four main phases of work then followed between 1998 and 2001 before a fire in the Cathedral in November 2001 proved a setback to the conservation programme. The final phase of work was postponed until 2003 while the damage caused by the fire was assessed, with cleaning throughout the Cathedral, prompting study and tree-ring dating of the other medieval ceilings in the building. Throughout the conservation programme, as well as the conservation itself, every effort was made to record the discoveries of the conservators, aided by a programme of photogrammetry and photomontage of the ceiling. Additional to the conservation work, but crucial to a proper understanding of the structures, tree-ring dating was undertaken on both the remnant of medieval roof and on the ceiling itself. The transept ceilings proved to be of particular importance, since they proved to be the chronological and design forerunners to the nave ceiling. Both the pre- and post-fire works generated numerous technical reports, on the structure and its physical history, on the paint of different periods, on the condition and treatment of the roof, ceiling and painted decoration, on the dendrochronology and on the methods of survey and documentation

Kibworth Harcourt Mill, Langton Road, Kibworth Harcourt, Harborough, Leicestershire: Ring-width Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Wigglematching of additional Oak Timbers

An original set of samples taken in 2004 were re-assessed, and an additional 21 timbers were sampled, along with one measured by digital photography. Some timbers are thought to have been derived from the same parent trees, and a new site master made from the ring-width series of 17 trees was made. One later timber was dated individually. Radiocarbon wiggle-matching was undertaken on the main post, which could not be dated by ring-width dendrochronology. The main post was found to have come from a tree felled after cal AD 1574–1620 (95% probability), but probably after cal AD 1584–1605 (68% probability). Spring vessels for AD 1774 were found on four timbers, pushing the construction date for the majority of the mill a year later than previously found. Some elements of the cross tree appear to have come from trees felled in AD 1791–1824, which may suggest that the trestle has been replaced. A packing piece under a cross tree dates to after AD 1845

Furness Abbey, Manor Road, Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria: Tree-Ring Analysis and Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of the Presbytery Wall Foundation Raft Timbers

Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on 43 samples obtained as slices from a series of timbers used as a foundation raft for the presbytery walls at Furness Abbey, these timbers having being removed as part of emergency conservation works. This analysis produced one dated site chronology comprising 32 samples and having an overall length of 182 rings (BIFESQ01). These rings were dated as spanning the years AD 975–1156. Interpretation of the sapwood on the dated samples would suggest the likelihood that all the timbers were cut as part of a single programme of felling (though perhaps not all at exactly the same time) in the period AD 1165–90, and are thus likely to represent part of the earliest work on the extant Abbey. A second site chronology, BIFESQ02, comprising nine samples could also be created, this being 161 rings long. This site chronology could not be dated by dendrochronology, but the results of a radiocarbon wiggle match suggest it is likely that the sequence is broadly coeval with BIFESQ01. The remaining two samples were rejected from the analysis

The Fox Hotel, 1 and 1a Market Place, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire: Tree-ring analysis and radiocarbon wiggle-matching of oak timbers

Tree-ring analysis was undertaken on the ring-width series from fourteen of the fifteen timbers sampled from The Fox Hotel and the neighbouring building to the east, 1 and 1A Market Place. Cross-matching allowed three site master chronologies to be formed, two from the Fox Hotel, and one from 1 and 1A Market Place, which contained three, two, and three timbers respectively. Neither Fox Hotel chronologies could be dated by dendrochronology. The moulded beams in 1 and 1A Market Place, however, were converted from trees most likely felled in the second quarter of the fifteenth century AD. Radiocarbon dating was undertaken on eight single-ring samples from cnfox05, the longest tree-ring series in the undated site sequence cnfox542m. Wiggle-matching of these results, taking account of the missing sapwood rings on the samples, indicates that the three cross-matched coeval timbers from the roof of the Fox Hotel were felled in the last quarter of the sixteenth century AD