Pembridge Amenity Trust

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Protecting the Scheduled Historic Buildings and Monuments of Pembridge. A Registered Charity No 1060265

Pembridge the Village - Pembridge has clearly seen many changes since its inception. The village pre-dates the Domesday book. A community has existed at this place for over 1000 years. At one point in its history the village exceeded Leominster in size and was an important centre of commerce during the mediaeval period. Following the Industrial Revolution, Pembridge appeared to "fall off the map" and economic activity declined. The village was left alone to continue its rural traditions in relative isolation and, as a consequence, much of its medieval character remained unspoiled.

West End Farm, West Street (RCHM 34, SMR 16379)

Results
One of the samples proved unusable, however four of the others contained useful numbers of rings and one of these retained complete sapwood and original bark-edge. Three of the series cross-match and a mean series constructed from them was then compared with medieval and post-medieval oak sequences from throughout England, Wales, and elsewhere in Europe. It was apparent that this chronology matched a number of independent reference chronologies at a single consistent position. This position was checked visually and appears to be a reliable match. The correlation of the sequence to other oak reference chronologies indicates a date of AD1322-1424 inclusive for the rings of the series.

Interpretation
Interpretation is again simple sample 23, from a cruck, contains complete sapwood and bark-edge and there is the beginnings of the spring growth of a ring after the end of the measured sequence. This timber was therefore felled in the spring of AD1425. The other two dated samples, from the cross-wing, are complete to the heartwood/sapwood boundary and adding the minimum and maximum likely values for the missing sapwood to the dates of each timber indicates felling of these occurred between AD1413 and 1449, this supports the structural interpretation of a single construction event for the building.

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What is Dendrochronology or tree ring analysis?

ARCUS Dendrochronology Laboratory
University of Sheffield
West Court
2 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT

Phone: 0114 222 5107 Fax: 0114 276 3146 Email: dendro@sheffield.ac.uk

For more information please contact the secretary of the Pembridge Amenity Trust info@pembridgeamenitytrust.co.uk