STRUCTURAL TRENDS IN ENGLISH MEDIEVAL BUILDINGS: NEW INSIGHTS FROM DENDROCHRONOLOGY

Abstract

Since the first annual lists of tree-ring dated buildings were published in Vernacular Architecture in 1980, dendrochronologists have assigned either a precise felling date or reasonably narrow dating parameters to more than 3000 building construction phases. In 1997, and again in 2001, Sarah Pearson traced the chronological distribution of rural aristocratic, gentry, vernacular and urban buildings tree-ring dated to 1200–1600. In 2001 it was particularly encouraging to learn that, although the numbers of tree-ring dated buildings in these categories had nearly doubled, the chronological patterns had remained unchanged. She forecast that ‘the results in all categories will become more statistically valid as the number of buildings sampled increases […]’. Following a further marked increase in the number of tree-ring dating reports available for analysis, this paper tests the proposition that ‘[…] the information should soon become robust enough to be subdivided and sustain serious argument’. Arguably, the collective efforts of historic building analysts and dendrochronologists can now be put to wider use, going beyond the attribution of construction date ranges to individual buildings and building categories and contributing to wider historical debates through enhancing our understanding of the dissemination of building types.