1998:065 - BLACKPOOL, Cork, Cork

Phase III of this road project involved the construction of a culvert from the Glen Road to Brewery Corner. The route of the culvert passes through sites dating to the 18th/19th centuries, such as Green's Distillery, a tannery at Corkeran's Quay, a mill at Assumption Road, Hewitt's Watercourse Distillery (now an industrial estate), Dunn's Tannery and Water's Mill. Before construction a complete architectural and industrial archaeological survey of sites on the route of the bypass was carried out.

Construction work uncovered the remains of the 18th-century corn- and flour-mill at Assumption Road and a row of 19th-century houses demolished in this century at Farrancleary Place. Following demolition of buildings associated with the distillery, the foundations of a steam mill and the structure of a chimney were recorded.

A group of five wooden tanning pits of plank-and-post construction was uncovered and excavated. The pits measured c. 1m2, and the surviving depth was 0.4m–0.6m. The pits were filled with clay, stones, grit, red brick and red earthenware. At the base of one pit was a layer of oily debris containing animal hairs, scraps of leather and some scraps of metal. A Georgian halfpenny coin, dating from between 1769 and 1805, was found in the silty clay in which the pits were set.

A layer of residue from the tanning process was recorded at the site of Dunn's Tannery. This contained compacted oak chips and bark and possibly minerals that were used in the tanning process.

The sill-beam and other timbers of a sluice-gate were found in situ at the outlet of a culverted channel on the north side of the Back Watercourse below Hewitt's Watercourse Distillery. Tenoned upright and horizontal timbers were fixed into, or laid on top of, the beam. A row of holes bored into the horizontal timbers may indicate the presence of a grating. This site is probably of late 18th-/early 19th-century date.

City Hall, Cork