Hi Guys,

Sorry to dispell some myths but I think that we need to start dealing in hard facts.

One of the outcomes of the various dendrochronolgy projects being run in various parts of the UK would appear to indicate that there is no definite trend in when timber is felled. Dendro is sufficiently sensitive to determine whether historically timber was felled in Spring, Summer, Winter with no mention of autumn / fall (harvest time). These dendro results are reported regularly in Vernacular Architecture and inspection of these reports would not identify any particular season as being dominant.

Care needs to be excercised in interpretting these dendro related results since quick grown timber does not tend to date very well and many early (medieval)buildings appear to be constructed from fast grown timber thus results obtained are only from slow grown timber sources.

One of the earlier posts on this thread explains that softwoods continue to grow in winter and I very much doubt this to be true. For the last 9 years I have been systematically measuring and recording the (girth) growth increment of Douglas fir in my own woodlot and I have found that by late September growth has all but ceased. Girth measurements taken during winter consistently demonstrate a slight shrinkage of girth which I have generally put down to tightening of the bark as the requirement for growth subsides.

I think that each woodlot will have its own "best season" for being able to access and haul out timber and this would need to be taken in conjunction with seasonal labour availability thus the various practices reported earlier in this thread may relate more to popular myth than be supported by hard evidence.

Ken Hume