Bromley Hall, Gillender Street, London Borough of Tower Hamlets: Tree-Ring Analysis of Pine Timbers
Author(s): Dr Martin Bridge
Fifteen pine structural roof timbers were dated, producing a site chronology covering the period AD 1376–1686. The difficulties associated with the positive identification of sapwood in some samples made interpretation difficult, but the grouping of the outer ring dates of the majority of the samples strongly suggests that the trees used in the construction of the roof were most likely felled within a short period. The results indicate that this felling took place in the last decade of the seventeenth century or in the early eighteenth century, and that this was the most likely time of construction of the roof. Two pine floorboards from a first-floor room were also dated. Neither appeared to retain sapwood, but it is suggested that the floor was probably laid at about the same time as the re-roofing of this medieval structure. The timbers appear likely to have been imported from Scandinavia, the best matches being found with sites in southern Sweden and southeast Norway.
- Report Number:
- 13/2015
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 22
- Keywords:
- Dendrochronology Standing Building
