Reading between the rings with Charles Norman

“My lab works on the premise that we recreate past climates using annual growth rings in trees,” says Charles, who specialises in a field called dendrochronology within the Department of Geography. 

“We can take samples from trees in an area and look at the rings and use them to reconstruct past climates to a very high annual and inter-annual resolution.”

It turns out that some of the tree rings that Charles examined during his master’s degree had quite a lot to say. “There are very old oak records for western Europe, and I started noticing a very significant anomaly across southern Britain in two particular years: 364 and 365 CE. These were the two lowest growth years in the entire 2000-year recorded of oak growth, and they fell consecutively.”

The historical and archaeological records provided little information, but after further investigation Charles discovered that a pivotal event in the history of Roman Britain had taken place in years following this period of drought, as evidenced by the tree rings. 

With Roman defences weakened by the abnormally dry summers, supported by written evidence of famine and unrest, the Picts, Scotti, and Saxons attacked the Romans in 367 CE in an event that would become known as the 'barbarian conspiracy', with order only being restored two years later.

Charles is quick to point out that, while the drought itself wasn’t the direct cause of the conflict, it’s a very clear example of climate acting as a catalyst – a significant finding that has been covered by various news outlets, including the Guardian and the Telegraph. “The tree rings allowed us to develop a theory of what happened,” says Charles.

When he’s not looking at tree records, Charles spends as much time as he can outside with real ones. 

“I grew up outside on our small family farm,” he says. “My dad is a farmer, and is heavily involved in the Green Party, so from a young age we were all taught to be environmentally minded with everything we do. At some point in the future I see myself returning to farming, although before that I’m excited to carry on the work I’m doing in the environmental sciences.” Charles—who is currently a recipient of the John Hughes PhD scholarship—was the first recipient of Wolfson’s Hoath Family Scholarship, which supports an MPhil student in a field related to sustainability and conservation.

Although Charles is still trying to find the wild places in Cambridge, he is happy to have found Wolfson, especially the outdoor spaces and the gardens.

“I kind of fell into Wolfson, but I really love it here. I started rowing at Wolfson and I met my partner here, at the Howler. It was our very first evening at the College and we were sitting next to each other.” He laughs. “I guess I owe Wolfson that as well!” 

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