County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: Bailey's New Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0103
Author: Orla Scully
Site type: House - 18th century
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 660987m, N 612422m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.260127, -7.106629
A licence to monitor with a view to rescue excavation was granted in March 1999 for the site of the new housing office to be built in Bailey's New Street, Waterford City. The level of the site was to be reduced to a uniform 4m OD.
Clearance revealed that a large proportion of the site had been given over to cellars in the post-medieval period. The area west of these was excavated by hand (c. 10m x 4m), revealing several late house walls and one that was integrated into the foundations of the gable end of the Deanery. The date of construction of the present Deanery is believed to be mid-18th century. However, it is believed to be built on the site of an earlier Deanery. The wall unearthed in this part of the site may be part of a boundary or a garden wall pre-dating the street. The date attributed to the laying out of Bailey's New Street is 1542. This area of the site had quite a high yield of medieval and post-medieval pottery and roof and floor tiles.
Following a survey by the architects, the cellars were removed with permission from Dúchas. Because of the discovery that late cellars had largely truncated the site, it was decided to lower the interior finished floor level. As the writer was unable to undertake continued excavation of the site, Mary O'Donnell carried out the extension of the licence to facilitate the new design (see No. 851, Excavations 1999).
7 Bayview, Tramore, Co. Waterford
