1998:096 - THE MILLENNIUM COMPLEX, East Wall, Derry, Derry

This project took place inside the walls in the south-east corner of Derry in late December and early January and was necessitated by the proposed construction of a theatre on the site, which lies between the city wall to the east and north, Bank Place/Linenhall Street to the west and Newmarket Street to the south.

Five test-trenches were sunk. Trench 1, the easternmost, lay c. 10m from the city wall. It ran approxmately north-south for 11m. The northern half was excavated to a depth of 1.2m, as the construction would be to a depth of only 0.9m. The southern half of the trench was excavated to a depth of c. 4m. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.

Trench 2 lay to the west of Trench 1, 20m from the city wall. It was 2.5m wide and 5m long.

Trench 3 lay 3m to the east of the steps at the west of the site. It was 2.2m wide and 8m long and ran upslope beside the steps. The stratigraphy was composed of modern and 19th-century building rubble and wall footings that appeared to directly overlie the subsoil. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.

The topsoil in Trench 4 was underlain by a layer of rubble c. 0.9m thick. This contained modern debris. Under this in the northern half of the trench was a concrete slab c. 0.2m thick, which formed the roof of a tunnel, 1.95m high, and 1.5m wide, walled with concrete blocks. It ran for c. 9 m and was blocked by rubble at each end. Where visible, the floor of the tunnel was composed of rough stone slabs, possibly the original flooring of the cellars. The concrete slab was not penetrated, nor was the walling disturbed. This slab formed the northern end of Trench 4.

The southern portion of the trench was extended at right angles to the main trench. In the south-western corner of the extension a layer of sand 0.5m deep was uncovered under the topsoil and on top of rubble. This portion of the trench was bounded on the south by a well-built, mortar-bonded brick wall. At the eastern end were the remains of a brick-built vault. The wall was c. 2m high and over 6m long. It was built on a stone-and-mortar foundation on the bedrock and was c. 0.5m deep. The material between these two walls consisted of a series of layers of rubbish. Modern material was noted at least 2m below the surface. At the base of the stone walling there appeared to be a more coherent silty layer. This also contained stones and brick, and may have been the floor of the structure. The face of the exposed wall was the internal facing of the southern wall of the structure (remains of the vaulting were visible). It is probable that the wall represents the surviving portion of a range of cellars or tunnels in the basements of 17th-century buildings.

The construction of the cement block tunnel would have destroyed the northern side of the cellar.

Trench 5 uncovered a very thin layer of topsoil over a very unstable mass of rubble. This was bounded on the north side by the carpark wall. At this point it is a composite wall made of mortar, the remnants of two brick vaults and cement. The southern side of these arches appears to have been shuttered with planks and filled in with mortar. Only part of the vaulting and the upper portions of the support pillars are visible. On the northern side the wall appears to be brick, spacer built and rendered. From what remains it appears that the roof was cross- (groin-) vaulted, i.e. composed of two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles in each bay.

To the south of this wall was a mass of rubble. On removal, at a depth of c. 1m, a brick and stone wall, the eastern boundary of a room with the remains of vaulting, running approximately north-south, was uncovered at the east. The wall was broken by an entrance/fireplace in its centre, through which access to the modern tunnel was gained. At a distance of 2.8m to the south of the long wall was another, running parallel to the first. This was also brick with remains of matching vaulting, and was built on a stone footing, as in Trench 4. There were gaps in it, and it was in a much poorer state of repair than in Trench 4. The room extended at least 6.1m to the west and was filled with a great deal of rubble, both ancient and modern. It appears to have been deliberately destroyed and filled in relatively recently. There was no sign of a western end.

It was recorded by Dudley Waterman that a 17th-century tunnel was exposed during rebuilding at the YMCA (demolished in 1979). It extended from Linenhall Street to the back of the city wall and consisted of twelve brick-vaulted bays. This network of tunnels/cellars under the city was surveyed but the army confiscated the survey. Their function may have included facilitating the unobserved movement of troops, food and ammunition to the walls and acting as a place of refuge and an escape route (two of the passages went through the walls).

The passages are pre-Siege, and it is likely that they were constructed before 1629 'for sinking 22 cellars under sundry of the houses not done at first at 20 pounds per cellar, one with another 440 pounds' (OS of Derry 1875, 42).

It appears that much or all of the original settlement in this area has been destroyed by the subsequent occupation. This is particularly true in Trench 3. The other two trenches appear to be garden or yard areas of the 17th/early 18th century. Nick Brannon noted this in his trial-trenching in the carpark (No. 95, Excavations 1998)

The archaeological material recovered was predominantly animal bone. There were also some fragments of hand-made brick, possibly 17th century in date. Some pottery was also recovered, mostly sgraffito and brownware.

What appears to have been uncovered in Trenches 4 and 5 are the remains of a line of cellars of 17th-century date. They are in a poor state of repair, and it seems that they were known of at least as recently as the 1970s, judging by some of the material in them and the probable age of the cement block tunnel. The only real archaeological features appear to be the walls and associated features. It appears that they were used over a long period and were kept relatively clean. Upon their destruction the remains were collapsed and filled with rubbish. They were later further disturbed by modern construction.

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