County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: Deanery Garden/'The Crypt'
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Celie O'Rahilly, for Waterford Corporation, and Margaret O'Brien
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 660637m, N 612152m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.257740, -7.111802
Deanery Garden
This was a partial excavation of a small area known as the 'Deanery Garden' situated in the centre of Waterford city within the area of the old city walls close to the Cathedral. The excavation centered around a 13th-century barrel-vaulted undercroft know locally as 'The Crypt'. The roof of this structure was excavated for traces of a first floor, but none were found. Part of the area east of the undercroft was then excavated to locate the original city wall. A cobbled yard and an annexe to a 15th or 16th-century house, probably dating to the early 17th century, were exposed. There was a stepped entrance from the house to the undercroft belonging to this phase. There was no trace of the city wall which was thought to be part of the foundations of the surviving city wall.
Underlying this occupation were various earlier walls probably of late medieval date. Due to constraints of time and finance it was impossible to excavate these.
The main bulk of finds consisted of 17th-century pottery (local and imported), recovered from the backfill overlying the drains which formed the latest stratified features on the site. This backfill probably relates to the construction of the city hall (c.1773) when it appears that the stones of the excavated structures, including a large portion of the east wall of the undercroft, were robbed.
The Crypt
The structure known as 'The Crypt' exhibits two phases of construction. The earliest, dating to the 13th century, has a central arcade. Excavation in this section of the building revealed a stone floor but all the material removed was disturbed.
The later 16th-century addition is constructed at a higher level and the vaulted roof preserves evidence for wicker centering. Beneath the modern floor which had been laid here, postholes and artefacts pre-dating this phase of construction, were uncovered.
