AS part of fascinating research into the town’s history, a building on Droitwich High Street, has been found to be nearly 700 years old.

The information has been discovered through the Dodderhill Parish Survey project, which received £35,000 of lottery funding recently to undertake research into historic Droitwich.

Part of the grant money has been used to employ historic buildings researchers, and dendrochronologists who are able to analyse tree rings on timbers in order to date them.

The new evidence found by the researchers has identified that the building at 33 High Street, contains timbers which date back to 1339, making it one of the earliest timber-framed buildings in Worcestershire.

The 'Historic Droitwich: Its Streets and People' Project, which was initiated by the Dodderhill Parish Survey group and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has been making a detailed study of 33 High Street, and has discovered that it contains substantial remains of a major early 14th century house.

The experts discovered that much of the medieval frame of a former open hall is still visible inside the building, with timbers used in the construction, which have been dated to 1340, meaning that the oak trees used, were most probably felled in the winter of 1339 and would have been used within 12 or 18 months at most.

Dodderhill Parish Survey Project chairman, Lyn Blewitt, said: “This is a very exciting result. Here we have a building still standing which was begun a decade before the Black Death struck England in 1349. Our study has shown that major components of a large medieval house of the early 14th century are in situ.

“This survey is part of the research by the 'Historic Droitwich' project and has been possible by the kind invitation of the owner Belinda Terry and the financial support of the HLF. It has long been suspected that no. 33 High Street might contain a much earlier structure than the 18th century appearance of the street frontage, and we are thrilled to be able to date the building so accurately. We have also discovered from dendrochronology that a first floor was inserted into the former open hall in 1594 because the tree which was used as the main ceiling beam in the present shop (Jewels) was cut down in the winter of 1593.

She added: “Thanks to dendrochronology, we can precisely date this process; and we also conclude that this would have been the date when the timber-framed stair turret built on to the back of the house was erected in order to give access to the new first floor. It is very important that we recognise that, here in Droitwich, we have the second or third oldest domestic building yet dated in the county.”

The property next door at 31 High Street, was originally the private wing or solar, of part of the same building, and has been dated on stylistic grounds to about a century later, suggesting that it was rebuilt at some point.

Experts from English Heritage have carried out dendrochronology in that property and are currently waiting for the results, while the Historic Droitwich project will also be carrying out some further surveying and dendrochronology on several of the town’s older buildings later this year.