Trying to narrow down the date the Dovecote was built

When the dovecote was being restored in the early 2000’s, the national organisation ‘Historic England’ suggested that a fairly exact date for the build might be found using the technique called “Dendrochonology”. This involved taking several wood core samples (14 in all) from a few of the oak beams (lintels and purlins) inside the dovecote. The report based on their work has recently been received by the trust, and it is available by clicking here.

 Dendrochonology is based on measuring the pattern of the tree’s growth rings visible in the wood core samples.

As can be seen in the diagram, the yearly growth rings change in thickness according to the type of growing season – wet, dry, cold etc. 

Core samples were taken from the wood in the dovecote, and the pattern of annual lines was measured.

If you have other wood samples from local buildings/sites of known age (i.e. wood hopefully grown in similar conditions), you can compare the patterns overlapping between samples and decide the age of your unknown wood – as in the figure above.

Unfortunately the researchers did not think they had good enough pattern matches  (low statistical t values) to ascribe a date to the dovecote timbers. They felt the most likely reason for this is that the local management of the wood where the trees were growing changed. This typically happens where trees around were maybe cut down (for other uses) and the tree that provided the dovecote wood suddenly had more light or exposure to different weather conditions.