ENN104195 - Dower House, 1998 (Dendrochronology survey)

Analysis was undertaken of samples from twenty-nine oak beams at the Dower House, Fawsley. This resulted in the production of two site chronologies. The first has 149 rings and spans the period AD 1427 - 1575. The second site chronology has 176 rings spanning the period AD 1720 - 1895. A number of other samples date individually. Interpretation of the heartwood/sapwood boundaries and the sapwood, where it exists, suggests a range of felling dates are represented. The earliest certain felling date is estimated to be in the range AD 1514 - 1539 which may relate to the initial construction of the Dower House. A number of the dated timbers appear to have been felled in the later-sixteenth century and may represent a major reconstruction or extension; it is possible that this is connected with the visit of Queen Elizabeth the First to the house in AD 1575. There is then a 'romantic' repair at the end of the nineteenth-century.