Expanding Horizons: A Tree-Ring Dating Programme Around Ingleborough, North Yorkshire

Abstract

As part of a broader study of traditional farm buildings in the Ingleborough area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park fifteen early buildings were subjected to Level 2 surveying and tree-ring dating funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund’s Ingleborough Dales Landscape Partnership. Felling dates were obtained for all but four of the buildings with an overall total of 45 dates obtained for timbers. Only five post-date the year 1700 and seven — from different timbers in one field barn — pre-date the year 1300. The overall results have severely dented pre-existing assumptions that the fabric of most field barns in upland areas like the Dales is predominantly of the late eighteenth or nineteenth century. The findings have made a significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of traditional farm buildings in the area.