Tag: Katherine Parr

Tree-ring dating of previously unidentified Elizabethan roofs at Sudeley Castle

Dr Andy Moir of Gloucestershire Historic Buildings Group takes a look at the results from their attempts to date the outer ward of Sudeley Castle

Tree-ring dating at Sudeley Castle has established that the outer courtyard roofs were constructed over three years between 1569 and 1572. This result overturns the previous history which indicated that the castle roofs were destroyed during the Civil war and identifies that the roofs were likely built by Edmund Brydges (the 2nd Lord Chandos).

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Sudeley Castle Outer Courtyard looking north, copyright Dr Andy Moir

Sudeley Castle has Saxon origins, but its history really developed from 1441 with Ralph Boteler (Baron Sudeley and Lord Chamberlain of the King’s Household) who set about developing a castle to reflect his new-found status. In later Tudor times, Thomas Seymour was granted the castle by Henry VIII and after marrying the king’s widow, Katherine Parr he set about refurbishment of the Sudeley Estate. Katherine became pregnant at a relatively late age and unfortunately died a few days after childbirth. Following her death and Seymour’s arrest for treason following his desperate attempt to grab power at the expense of his brother Edward Seymour, the castle was then gifted to John Brydges, the Constable of the Tower of London. This gift by Queen Mary I was followed with the title of Lord Chandos being granted to the family.  John’s successor, Edmund Brydges seems to have been further developing the castle, enhancing the work of Boteler and Seymour and the family contributed to Winchcombe with the building of Almshouses by Edmund’s wife Dorothy. The Brydges family maintained the castle throughout the rest of the Tudor times and supported the Royalist cause following the start of the Civil War.

Besieging Sudeley Castle in 1643, during the Civil War

Sudeley had been used as the base by both Prince Rupert and Charles I from where they had launched attacks on Cirencester and preparations had been made to attack Gloucester. Following these failed attempts, Parliamentary troops had successfully besieged the castle on two occasions, bombarding the castle with cannon and after the second siege, the order was given for a systematic slighting (made un-inhabitable). Roofs were taken off and many walls were razed to the ground. Details of the destruction became clear when Lady Jane Brydges widow of George Chandos tried to sue for recompense. This was shown by depositions in the archives taken from five craftsmen stating that the castle had been fully destroyed and this had been signed off by two judges from Gloucester, Edward Slaughter and Robert Megge, but as the dendrochronology report went onto show, the slighting was not as comprehensive as claimed and roofs to the East, West and part of the North range of the outer courtyard were still intact.

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 It had previously been thought that the castle had been left in ruins for the next 180 years, and few of the original structures at Sudeley Castle were thought to have survived before extensive restoration in the 19th century funded by the Dent brothers and their heir John Coucher Dent and his wife Emma.

In 2025 castle archivist Derek Maddock invited the Gloucestershire Building Recording Group (GBRG) to survey the outer courtyard roofs. Unexpectedly, the survey identified that east, west and north range roofs of the outer courtyard contained mainly oak timbers that were likely to be Elizabethan. As this finding completely changed understanding of the castle’s history, a project to precisely tree-ring date the roofs was conceived. This project was supported by the Castle’s owner, Lady Ashcombe, and funded by the Castle Studies Trust (www.castlestudistrust.org).

Dr Andy Moir of GHBG taking one of the 30 core samples from the roof.

The 2026 project saw 30 pencil-like core samples drilled from the castle roofs. Tree-ring series from twenty of these timbers matched together to form a 159-year mean chronology that was dated to span 1413 to 1571. The oldest tree used in construction of the roof started growing in 1413 and the trees were all felled between the spring of 1569 and the winter of 1571/2.  As it was common medieval practice to convert the tree into timbers before they seasoned, construction of the east, north and west range roofs of the outer courtyard likely occurred between 1569 and 1572. To give some idea of the scale of the construction, the west, north and east range roofs are around 36m, 38m and 46m in length, respectively. Yet still the carpenters of the day likely managed to complete this huge construction over just three years. This result therefore overturns the previous history which indicated that the castle roofs were destroyed during the Civil war and identifies that the roofs were likely built by Edmund Brydges (the 2nd Lord Chandos). A fantastic development in the history of Sudeley Castle.

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Tree-ring dating and 3D imaging the original roofs of Sudeley Castle’s Outer Courtyard Ranges

Project lead Dr Andy Moir (Chairman of the Gloucestershire Building Recording Group) takes a look at the project to see if we need to re-evaluate our existing understanding of the building history of Sudeley Castle.

Sudeley Castle is a grade I listed building (Historic England List No: 1154791). Although the castle has origins as a Saxon house, its history really began with Ralph Boteler who in 1441 became the Lord Admiral, and then Baron Sudeley and Lord Chamberlin of the Kings Household. Ralph Boteler set about buildings a castle to reflect his new found status and is reputed to have built the Portmare Tower, the Dungeon Tower, the banqueting Hall, and the Tithe barn. In 1547 Thomas Seymour married King Henry VIII widow Katherin Parr (who’s tomb is at the castle) and set about the refurbishment of the estate. Historical documents record that stonemasons and carpenters built a complete new suite of apartments. Queen Mary granted the castle to Sir John Brydges in 1554 creating him Lord Chandos and later the third Lord Chandos entertained Queen Elizabeth I three times at Sudeley.

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The castle was bombarded by cannon in 1644 during the Civil War and ordered ‘slighted’ (which is stated to have included the removal of the roofs) in 1649. After this the castle was left in ruins for the next 180 years and then extensively restored in the 19th century.

Figure 1: Outer Courtyard Ranges of Sudeley Castle, copyright Dr Andy Moir

Due to the slighting previously little of the earlier builds at Sudeley were thought to survive. However, in November 2025 the Outer Courtyard of Sudeley Castle was visited by the Gloucestershire Building Recording Group (GBRG) and a brief visual survey of the west, north and east range roofs undertaken (Figure 1). Some of stylistic features of timbers that survive in the roofs are useful to estimating their date of contraction, because date ranges of similar features have been identified in through the GBRG’s previous tree-ring dated projects on buildings in Gloucestershire. For instance, the use of queen struts (Figure 2) in the castle roofs are rarely used before the 1440s, and the use of clasped purlins are generally restricted to between the 1380s and 1500s. Diminished principal are present and these are rarely used before the 1440s and to date no examples have been found after the 1550s. Similarly the use of curved wind braces are typically restricted to before the 1570s, after which straight wind braces become more common used. Also in terms of carpentry, 80º saw marks are usually a reliable indicator that the timbers were pit-sawn, which generally comes into use from the 1540s. Overall, the stylistic features recorded suggest that the West and North Range roofs were likely constructed in the first half of the 16th century, some time between the 1500s and 1550s. This evidence suggests that the West and North ranges may be part of the new suite of apartments built by Thomas Seymour around 1547. However, precise dating of the timbers would be required to resolve this issue.

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Figure 2: East range raking queen strut truss constructed using oak timbers, copyright Dr Andy Moir
Figure 3: A core taken for tree-ring dating (top) and a pencil (bottom), copyright Dr Andy Moir
 

Through the taking of small pencil like cores from timbers (Figure 3), tree-ring analysis can often identify an exact year of felling of the timbers used in construction of a building. Most medieval woodworkers use green wood (as seasoned wood is much more difficult to work with) and so a year of felling is generally accepted to identify the year of construction. During the recording of the roof at Sudeley Castle the timbers were also assessed for their potential use in tree-ring dating. Oak timbers with more than 50 rings, traces of sapwood or bark, and accessibility were the main considerations. The oak timbers in the roofs of all three ranges contain sufficient rings and bark to indicate tree-ring dating would likely produced precise felling dates and so significantly advance the understanding of the development of Sudeley Castle. Thanks to funding from the Castle Studies Trust the roof will be recorded and samples for tree-ring dating taken near the end of February 2026 and the results of this project available near the end of March 2026. The GBRG would like to express their thanks to Lady Ashcombe for kindly granting access to Sudeley Castle for this project.

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