1987:51 - WATERFORD: High St./Peter St., Custom House B Ward, Waterford

This site was one of four excavated within the known medieval boundaries of Waterford, under the supervision of Maurice F. Hurley, City Archaeologist,  prior to the proposed redevelopment of Waterford city centre. 

The greater part of the block between High S. and Peter St. is being excavated. Work commenced in May 1987. The main focus of the excavation is on the Peter St. frontage where the boundaries of 7 properties were comparatively continuous from the early 13th century through to the 19th century. The settlement pattern in the 12th century appears to have been different and these layers are currently being excavated.

Two aisled houses and a subcircular bank and ditch enclosure are among the features being excavated. The bank of the enclosure is of gravel with surviving traces of stone revetting on the internal face. The entrance was flanked by large boulders. The earliest datable find from this feature is some 13th-century Bristol ware.

The 13th-century houses were made of wooden posts woven with wattle and packed with straw and bracken. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries the houses were generally of sill beam construction, frequently raised on stone footings. A changeover to exclusively stone buildings appears to have taken place in the later medieval period.

From the late 12th century onwards, numerous pits were cut into the clay in the central part of the block, i.e. behind the houses. Many of the pits were simply cut, and then rapidly filled with refuse. Other pits were lined with wattle, clay daub and oak planks. Four long pits were faced with stone, and were both square and rectangular, tapering towards the base. The exact function of the pits is unclear, but it seems likely that such elaborate structures were intended primarily for storage and not merely for refuse.

A cellar (4m x 3.8m x 4m deep), built of roughly dressed stone, was excavated in the centre of the block. It was probably used for the storage of valuable merchandise, or dairy produce. The period of use of the cellar pre-dates the middle of the 13th century. Around that time it was backfilled with refuse, mostly organic. Conditions for preservation of wood, bone and leather were excellent and the finds include an amber necklace, 16 lathe-turned wooden bowls, a longbow of yew, glass vessels, several decorated leather scabbards, many shoes, and other leather fragments.

An important assemblage of pottery indicating widespread trading contacts was also recovered. In addition to French, English and native ware, a proto-stoneware vase (c. 1270) from north Germany, a type rarely seen in Britain and Ireland, was found.

Planning Dept., Waterford Corporation, The Mall, Waterford