History from 1459 through to the Victorian Era
A 'New Build' at the end of The Wars of The Roses.
For this section I am indebted to Local author and Historian Alastair Reid for permission to use some of his work from his 2003 book Tilley, The secret History of a Secret Place and to Alastair and Prof. George Nash for details taken from their 2019 work The Tilley Timber Project, 500 Years of History in Wood. Both books cover the history of the unique hamlet of Tilley Village which is located just south of the market town of Wem.
Knowing the year a tree was felled to produce timber for a house gives us an accurate build date in that Oak needs to be used whilst still in its 'green' state, i.e. within a few months of cutting, otherwise the timber hardens and becomes very difficult to work. Several samples were taken from timbers within The Smithy for dating purposes and the results were somewhat surprising.
The Tilley Timber Project.
The project was conceived in 2014 and completed at the end of 2017 and used a variety of advanced scientific techniques such as dendrochronology, LiDAR and point cloud imaging to investigate, date and record the properties within the village. An expert in dendrochronology, the science of dating trees by examining their unique growth ring pattern, Dr Andy Moir was engaged to analyse samples from timbers in properties throughout the village and produce accurate tree felling dates. In the early modern period the principal structural material used in houses was Oak, due to its strength, durability, abundance and also the convenient sizes of sections available. The very large sample size available in the UK for Oak dating means that highly accurate results are obtainable, down to being able to identify not only the year of felling but also the season the tree was cut. More detail on the investigation work and results obtained is available via Dr Moir's work which is referenced later.Knowing the year a tree was felled to produce timber for a house gives us an accurate build date in that Oak needs to be used whilst still in its 'green' state, i.e. within a few months of cutting, otherwise the timber hardens and becomes very difficult to work. Several samples were taken from timbers within The Smithy for dating purposes and the results were somewhat surprising.
Hidden Attributes
The external rendered appearance of the building hides its timber structure; the view below, taken from the south east, looking north west gives no hint of the original framing. Repair and modifications to the structure that have taken place since build have resulted in removal of much of the original timbers from the eastern wall but much remains of the western wall and it is from this material that core samples of wood were taken.
