1997:607 - WEXFORD: The Pillar, King Street Upper and Mill Road, Wexford

Archaeological monitoring of the installation of services in the ‘malt store’ located at the junction of King Street Upper and Mill Road, Wexford, was carried out on 10 and 11 June 1997. The former malt store is shown on the OS maps along the western bank of the Bishop’s Water River. The site is located outside the southern end of the 12th-century Anglo-Norman walled town of Wexford in what was a marshy portion of the Bishop’s Water River. Historical records dating from the 12th century record the presence of two watermills in this area, within the demesne of the castle.

Two linear trenches were mechanically excavated across the central portion of the courtyard. Trench 1 was oriented north-east/south-west, measured 27.8m in length and was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.7m. The upper deposits contained iron slag and soot on both faces at the southern end of the trench. This material overlay a layer of fine sand containing occasional pieces of red brick.

Trench 2 ran perpendicular to Trench 1 in a north-west/south-east direction, measured 10m and was excavated to a depth of 0.7m. A substantial portion of the trench was disturbed prior to the current development, by pipes set within a grey-coloured clay which contained a heavy concentration of red brick and modern debris. This overlay a compact layer of slate grey-coloured fine silt.

The monitoring of the excavation of the trenches revealed no indications of medieval or earlier activity on the site. No artefacts were unearthed. A substantial portion of the courtyard of the malt house had previously been disturbed and the probability was that a portion of the courtyard had been utilised in recent times for ironworking. There were no indications of the existence of a mill on the Bishop’s Water River on this site. No further archaeological excavation was deemed necessary.

Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3