Site Event/Activity record ESF21558 - Tree-ring analysis of timbers from Freston Tower, Freston Park, Ipswich

This rare six-storey brick tower was thought to have been built around AD 1550 and displays a mixture of classical pediments and medieval angle turrets, coupled with an odd brick parapet balustrade. The ceilings of the lower floors have oak joists running east-west and laid flat, whilst those in the fifth-floor run north-south and are laid on-edge. The fifth-floor joists could not be dated. Joists from the lower ceilings were constructed from trees cut in winter AD 1578/9 or spring AD 1579 suggesting a construction date for the tower of AD 1579 or very soon thereafter. The tower thus provides a late example of the use of flat-laid joists.