SDO14898 - Little Toller Farmhouse, Toller Fratrum, West Dorset. Tree-ring Analysis of Oak Timbers

‘Dendrochronological analysis was undertaken on 23 of the 25 core samples obtained from timbers of the main range roof at Little Toller Farmhouse. This analysis produced a single dated site chronology comprising 15 samples with an overall length of 161 rings. These rings were dated as spanning the years AD 1379-1539. Interpretation of the sapwood on the dated samples, which represent timbers from the entire length of the roof, suggests that they represent a single phase of construction, the timbers being cut in a single episode of felling at some point in the mid-AD 1550s. The eight measured but ungrouped samples remain undated.’