1985:55 - WATERFORD: High Street/Exchange Street, Waterford

This is one of five sites in Waterford city on which excavation commenced in Autumn 1984.

Excavation was carried out at this site between September 1984 and October 1985. The project was originally a rescue operation, prior to development of the site by Bord Telecom. (The rescue element disappeared, however, after a few months when Telecom changed their original plans.)

Two main phases of activity were uncovered on this site, a 17th-century and a medieval phase. Dating to the 17th century were an alleyway, property boundaries, a drainage system, a cobbled courtyard and a central well, and a variety of 'oven-'or 'furnace-' type structures. The latter structures all varied in their construction and extended into an area under the modern road. The courtyard appears to have been of the 'sunken' variety, and was later covered with a mortar floor and converted into a basement, which may also have been roofed over. This period of activity may coincide with the use of the site as the Shambles (the meat market and abbatoir).

The 17th-century courtyard phase destroyed the medieval layers on the east of the site, but the area to the west remained intact. Activity dating from the 12th century to the 14th century (and probably later) was revealed, the area being principally used as a dumping ground, in the latter half of this period. The earlier levels showed remains of clay occupation surfaces, hearths, trackways, pits (both rubbish and constructional), gullies and numerous stakeholes. One large rubbish(?) pit was wattle lined.

A range of medieval and seventeenth-century pottery and other finds was recovered from the excavation.