1993:215 - WATERFORD: Greyfriars/Coffee House Lane, Waterford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: Greyfriars/Coffee House Lane

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0133

Author: Joanna Wren

Site type: House - medieval

Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)

ITM: E 660837m, N 612452m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.260413, -7.108820

The site is located on the corner of Coffee House Lane and Greyfriars, Waterford. It is within the area of the pre-Norman town, c. 140m west of Reginald's Tower. Bondeville Ltd. were building a multi-storey car park on the site and Waterford Corporation required that it be archaeologically tested prior to development. The work was carried out on 13th October.

Prior to testing, the site was the location of a bonded warehouse. A survey of the standing buildings was carried out A. Gittins (see Excavations 1993, No. 214). This revealed some standing walls of probable medieval date and an alleyway to the east of the site which may also date to the medieval period (A. Gittins pers comm).

Four strip test trenches, 1m wide, were dug by mechanical excavator. At the south end of the site the trenches exposed clay flooring and ash spreads at a depth of 2.6m above sea level. These contained pottery dating to the 13th and 14th centuries. They were interpreted as being the remains of floors and hearths for houses fronting onto Greyfriars to the west and the lane to the east.

The clay floors were separated by gravel uncovered at 3.098m above sea level. This layer appeared sterile and may be natural but, if so, its height is strange. It is possible that it was redeposited and formed the remains of some type of bank walling for a sunken featured structure like those uncovered previously on excavations in Waterford City (M. Hurley and O. Scully pers comm.). It may also have been part of some type of truncated bank feature extending north-south across the site. The trenches in the northern half of the site, however, produced no evidence of such a feature.

At the northern half of the site the remains of three walls were exposed, two extending north-south, 3m apart, and a third extending east-west. The area between the first two walls was covered by a floor constructed of clay and mortar. This contained one sherd of Saintonge pottery dating to the 13th or 14th century. These features were interpreted as the remains of a stone building, medieval in date, fronting onto Coffee House Lane.

In the north-east corner of the site a pit 1m sq. was excavated to the natural subsoil. Between 1.363m and 0.363m above sea level there were two layers of occupation debris containing pottery ranging in date from the 12th to the 14th centuries. Below these layers there was a grey silt mixed with lenses of organic material. The natural estuarine silt was reached at 0.237m below sea level. The building was constructed on a raft foundation at a level which involved no disturbance to the archaeological material and no further excavation was necessary.

The Milepost, Waterford