1999:006 - BELFAST: Waring Street, Antrim

Assessment excavations were carried out on this site, which is within a zone of archaeological potential marking the commercial hub of the 17th-century town at Belfast, before urban development.

Two trenches were excavated close to the modern street frontage. The earliest stratum uncovered in Trench 1 was a sterile sand subsoil, overlain by a compact, grey, sandy clay. In the centre of the excavated area the grey sandy clay was cut by a brick-built structure. The earliest part of this structure was a foundation trench measuring 1.6m north-south by 0.8m, with a maximum depth of 0.2m. The primary fill of the cut was a north-south-running brick-built wall measuring 1.6m north-south by 0.37m, with a maximum height of 0.34m.

Above this, the cut was filled with a mix of loam clay, brick fragments and mortar. A stick-pin, possibly medieval, was recovered from this fill. A further length of wall, running east-west, was uncovered at the southern limit of the north-south-orientated wall. The second wall was roughly jointed to the first, and no evidence was noted for tie-bricks. The exposed section of the second wall was 0.43m wide (north-south) and ran east for 0.88m before terminating. A third length of walling, the excavated dimensions of which were 0.36m wide (north-south) and 0.57m long, was exposed 1m east of this point. The bricks in the walls of this structure measured on average 0.22m x 0.1m x 0.05m and seem to be of 17th-century date.

The intervening space between the second and third walls, which measured 1m, almost certainly represents an external doorway opening onto Waring Street, suggesting that the line of the 17th-century street frontage does not differ significantly from the present one. The internal excavated limits of the structure measured 1.56m north-south by 1.9m. Within this area was a layer of compact, orange/brown clay. Five narrow linear features cut the upper surface of the clay. The features were all filled with a brown, organic loam and had a maximum depth of 0.05m. They have been interpreted as the remains of timber flooring.

The ceramic evidence, including Belfast delftware and saggar fragments, also seems to suggest a 17th-century date for the structure in Trench 1.

Trench 2 was positioned c. 5m east of Trench 1 and measured 2m by 1m. The earliest stratum uncovered was again the grey/yellow, sandy clay subsoil. A red brick wall cut into the subsoil close to the eastern limit of excavation. The wall was 1m long (north-south) and 0.46 wide and had a maximum height of 0.42m. This possible 17th-century wall may mark the eastern return wall of the same structure as that found in Trench 1. At the eastern limit of the excavation the early wall was disturbed by one, if not two, later walls and a gas main.

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