SDO14589 - The Tree-Ring Dating of the Priest's House Museum, 23-27 High Street, Wimborne Minster, Dorset

‘The Priest’s House Museum, 23-27 High Street, Wimborne Minster, Dorset (SZ 010 000) was sampled on 2 October 1992. Fifteen cores were extracted, eight from the main range and seven from the northern cross-wing. Of these samples, four from the main range had complete sapwood while the cross-wing similarly had three. Two samples from the main range dated, one with complete sapwood giving a felling date in the late summer/autumn of AD 1634. Three samples from the cross-wing also dated, giving a last measured ring date of 1545. As none of these last three samples had any sapwood or heartwood-sapwood transition, a terminus post quem of 1555 has been offered for the felling date range, but it is likely the timbers were felled quite some time after this. Ten other samples, five of which formed two additional site sequences, failed to date either with the dated samples from the site or with the national and regional reference chronologies. Nevertheless, the site produced a 376 ring chronology which should prove useful in dating future sites in the area.’