1993:219 - WATERFORD: Little Patrick St./Barronstrand St., Waterford

The site was located within the old Savoy Cinema on the corner of Little Patrick St. and Barronstrand St., Waterford. It lay outside the city's pre-Norman defences within the walls of the medieval western suburb. The excavation was necessary due to the redevelopment of the site by The Book Centre, Waterford. It began on 14th January and finished on 12th February. In December 1992 an archaeological site assessment was carried out by Cathy Sheehan (Excavations 1992, 59). This revealed the presence of archaeological deposits c. 1m below the modern ground surface.

The developers were retaining the walls of the existing building and only two aspects of the development required the removal of archaeological material. These were a stair-well in the centre of the site and a retaining wall to the south. The excavation was confined to the area affected by these features and a cutting 14m north-south x 16.3m east-west, was opened in the floor of the buildings.

The site was on a natural hill and a drop of c. 1m from south-north and again from east-west was observed in the old ground surface. The earliest features were uncovered at the eastern end of the cutting closer to the defended pre-Norman town. As the accumulated deposits lessened the gradient, settlement spread west up the hill away from the old town.

In the southern half of the cutting there was a series of fragmentary clay floors. These were associated with post and wattle walls running south-west/north-east and the features were interpreted as the remains of plots and buildings fronting onto Little Patrick St. The cutting was located 7m from the modern Little Patrick St. and would have been at least that distance from the medieval street. Many of the buildings were probably ancillary and located within the backyard of the plot proper.

Eleven different occupation levels were identified ranging in date from the mid-12th to the early 13th century. Each level relates to a new period of backyard activity and does not necessarily represent a change of house at the street front.

Above the clay floors were the remains of iron-working furnaces dating to the early 13th century. Above this again a series of clay spreads, stones and burning may have formed part of a second level of iron-working. This level dated to the mid-13th century.

The latest phase of activity surviving on the site before the building of the cinema involved the building of a series of walls and drains, probably in the 19th century. These corresponded exactly to plot boundaries in this area, shown on the 1841 and 1871 OS maps.

The Milepost, Waterford