The Hungerford Historical Association were this month given a fascinating talk by local man, Dr Andy Moir, entitled ‘Tree-rings a Time and a Place’. Andy has a PHD in Dendochronology and been studying the subject for 21 years.
Tree-ring dating was pioneered in the 1920’s and Dr Moir was quick to point out that Dendochronology is not about the counting of tree rings to gage the age of a tree, it is the more complex science of looking at the pattern in the varying widths of tree-rings to establish exactly when a tree was felled. The practical application is that if you can get several good samples from a building you should be able to tell which year it was built in (give or take a year or two). Dr Moir has used the technique to date a house in Hungerford High Street to 1449.
Each ring does represent a year in the tree’s life, but the width varies from year to year depending on the climate in the growing season, which is summer. Hence the patterns of differing widths are comparable for trees of the same species growing in roughly the same area, and these patterns tell us when the tree lived and died. Oak and pine work best and incredibly oak samples have been dated as far back as 7000BC.
Stylistic features can also tell us roughly when a building was constructed and in the last part of the talk the audience were able to take part by using a chart of these features to guess the age of various buildings they were shown.
The next talk is entitled ‘Antique, Post-war and Contemporary Silverware’ by another local man – George Styles, and is on the 23rd March at 7.30pm at The Corn Exchange, Hungerford.