1997:601 - NEW ROSS MAIN DRAINAGE SCHEME, New Ross, Wexford

Archaeological monitoring/recording in tandem with the Main Drainage Scheme commenced on 18 April 1995 and continued in 1997. The drainage works are now complete and post-excavation work is ongoing. The licence extension largely involved site works additional to the original contract. These included pipe-laying in the Quay area, crossing the N25 from outfalls at the Quay wall, works in lanes between the Quay and South Street and in the Urban District Council carpark outside the L&N/Super Valu shopping centre. Further works were carried out at the Three Bullet Gate.

At the Quay and the N25 road crossings the pipes were generally laid through layers of infill. In the lanes (Lady Lane, Conduit Lane and Back Lane) the ground was disturbed by existing services. In Conduit Lane a large brick-built conduit was exposed. This had been disturbed by the insertion of existing services. Pottery recovered from the excavation was all post-medieval in date.

In the carpark the basal layer exposed in two areas was a fine-grained silt with some stone and charcoal. This yielded medieval pottery: Saintonge green-glazed and 13th/14th-century local ware (C. McCutcheon, pers. comm.). No structural or cut features were recorded in the layer, which was at 0.88m OD in one area and at 1.49m OD in the other.

As part of the works at the Three Bullet Gate, a trench was opened south-east/north-west across Neville Street between the junction with the roundabout and the junction with Cross Street. A stone revetment extended roughly north–south, diagonally across the trench, and was exposed for a maximum length of 1.5m x c. 0.6m wide. It survived to a maximum height of 0.56m (43.995m OD).

A dump of local shale lay behind the revetment. The stone chips were fractured as a result of excavation rather than natural weathering, and redeposited behind the revetment. The dump was very loose when disturbed and contained no clay or any other accumulations.

A light brown silty clay abutted the revetment (to the west). The clay appeared to be homogeneous to the base of the trench. It extended over the surviving top of the revetment and the slate scree. Two pieces of medieval pottery from the same vessel were recovered.

Material was removed to a depth of c. 0.28m from the modern road surface from the junction along Neville Street. Weathered rock was exposed over much of the area. A clay layer, presumably the same found in the trench, appeared to stretch across the width of the road. The interface between the rock and the clay seemed to roughly respect an east–west property boundary between the back of the building which fronted on to Cross Street and the property comprising the Three Bullet Gate public house. The clay extends for c. 8.2m north–south. Its presence may indicate that the town ditch extended completely across Neville Street. It would support the theory that William Street was not included in the original line of walling. The stone revetment may represent later strengthening of the defences of which there are several records, or it might be the remains of an outer barbican included in the original or in an extension of the defences.

Laweesh No. 1, Dunmore East, Co. Waterford