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The Surrey Dendrochronology
Project
Introduction
Surrey Dendrochronology Project
South Mole Valley Cluster
East Guildford Cluster
Godalming Cluster
Introduction
National trends
in building activity inevitably conceal regional differences that can only
be explained by detailed local studies. The Royal Commission on Historic
Monuments, England, (RCHME) medieval building dating project in Kent and
Hampshire's Buildings Survey Group are examples of the growing number of
county based research projects untilising the absolute dates provided by
tree-ring dating to refine the typological and stylistic dating of
buildings.
Click image for dating
In Surrey,
owners have privately dated a growing number of buildings and the Oxford
Dendrochronology Laboratory has carried out several relevant
multi-building dendrochronology surveys. These include eight buildings
around Surrey Heath, five buildings around Charlwood, and from the
neighboring West Sussex six buildings in East Grinstead and six buildings
from around Horsham. Following some of this earlier work by the Domestic
Building Research Group (DBRG), a joint team project has now been formed.
Surrey Dendrochronology Project
The Surrey
Dendrochronology Project is a joint venture by the Surrey Archaeological
Society and the Domestic Buildings Research Group (Surrey), with further
support of Surrey County Council to carry out a programme of
dendrochronology within the County. The project aims through the
dendrochronological dating of some 200 buildings to archive its objectives
which are, briefly: to establish dating criteria for old buildings
generally; to contribute to the work taking place nationally on trends in
vernacular architecture; to support a wide range of historical and social
research programs, and to involve local communities in their history.
Click image for dating
The assessment
of a large number of buildings should enable not just their dating but
also the examination of environmental and socio-economic issues that can
rarely be addressed in the analysis of single buildings. The information
derived from a large number of individual timbers (dated, undated and
rejected) has great potential to further our understanding of the changing
landscape, woodland management techniques and underlying environmental
factors. One of the main objectives from an architectural view point is to
develop a much more precise framework for the dating of timber buildings
on technical and stylistic criteria than had been formerly been possible.
The DBRG has
recorded in detail some 3400 old buildings in Surrey. This information
assists a selection of buildings to represent all the major styles from
each period, and include a number of period "key" features. The
representative range of building types both within and between clusters
were initially identified with the view of ascribing date ranges to key
carpentry features within Surrey. The project hopes to provide refined
criteria by which to more securely date whole groups of buildings and more
accurately locate them in their historical context. Areas for sampling
were identified by members of the Surrey Dendrochronology Project using
the concept of "cluster" - a group of about 15 buildings in a definable
locality. It was calculated that, to cover the County and obtain
statistically significant results, some 15 clusters would be needed,
leading to the total therefore of some 200 buildings.
South Mole Valley Cluster
Dendrochronological sampling of some 20 buildings in the area of the South
Mole Valley took place in November 2003.
The results of
dendrochronological analysis of some nineteen buildings are now available
as reports. Samples were taken from buildings in a total of 4 parishes.
The reports available from each parish may be reviewed by clicking on
the following parish names:
Capel,
Charlwood,
Ockley and
Newdigate.
This
cluster includes many
notable buildings, such as
the church's of Charlwood, Newdigate and Capel. No report summaries will
be produced on this web-site for these buildings, but the results of this
project have been submitted for publication in VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE, V35.
East Guildford Cluster
Dendrochronological sampling of 13 buildings in the parishes of Albury,
East Clandon, Gomshall and West Horsely took place in February/March
2004.
The analysis of these
buildings has been completed and the reports are now available.
Godalming Cluster
November 2004,
saw the beginning of work on a third cluster based in and around Godalming.
Reports on the first five buildings dated in this area: 1 Church Street, 3
Church Street, 57-59 High Street, 109 High Street and Jordans (Eashing)
will soon be available.
For more
details on the project and the Domestic Buildings Research Group (Surrey),
see their web-site at: DBRG (Surrey)
Updated:
28/12/2006
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