NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Bayliss - Great Tower at St Mary Magdalen College Oxford - QUSP - ITRDB BRIT098

Renovations of the Great Tower at St Mary Magdalen College in Oxford, England undertaken in the 1960s involved the removal of 10 oak beams. Five of these were subsequently sampled for dendrochronological analysis (commissioned by the University of Oxford and Magdalen College); this resulted in all five series cross-matching to make the 157-year site chronology MAGALN7 which spans the period AD 1473-1629 (Miles, D, Worthington, M, and Bridge, M, 2009 Tree-ring dates from the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, List 214: Oxfordshire Dendrochronology Project – phase five, Vernacular Architect, 40, 127–8). One of these beams (mco63, now designated MAG-C63) was later acquired by Historic England. This was marked out with its calendrical date span to facilitate removal of specific rings of known date allowing Historic England to provide tree-ring standard samples to radiocarbon facilities worldwide as part of their quality control protocols.