1999:851 - WATERFORD: Bailey's New Street, Waterford

The site at Bailey's New Street, Waterford, is owned by Waterford Corporation, and before development of the site the removal of upstanding buildings was monitored by Orla Scully (see No. 850, Excavations 1999), under the same licence, in March 1999. This showed that the archaeological deposits in the area had been disturbed by the cellars of the 18th-century houses to a depth of c. 2.8m below street level. As the disturbance was so extensive, it was decided to determine whether it was feasible to provide the new building with a full basement, and to that end a test excavation was undertaken, in June 1999, by the writer. The results of the test excavation indicated that the basements were a feasible option but that further archaeological excavation was required to confirm this.

A more extensive excavation was carried out over four weeks from 5 to 30 July 1999. This revealed that the eastern side of the site contained the remains of two large ditches that had been filled in the late 12th/early 13th century. The remains of a probable 13th-century undercroft were uncovered on the eastern side of the site. It was then decided that the formation levels for the new building would be taken at existing ground level and the surviving archaeological deposits and structures would be preserved in situ.

The earliest feature was a large ditch (F207), which was c. 5.7m wide and 1.3m deep and extended for 15m north-south across the site. Two c. 2m-wide sections of the ditch were excavated. The finds from the fill of the ditch included 12th- and 13th-century pottery, two stick-pins and a ringed pin that may date to c. AD 950. Another ditch (F226), filled with material of similar date and extending parallel to, and east of, F207, lay mostly outside the area of the site. It was not possible to determine, within the constraints of the excavation, whether the ditches were contemporary or one was earlier than the other.

The ditches extended roughly north-south and would have been at right angles to the city wall, which lies immediately to the south, suggesting that they may have had a defensive function in association with the wall or an earlier defensive feature. The finds from the ditches indicate that they were filled in the late 12th/early 13th century.

Part of the east wall (F210) and of an internal mortared surface (F256) of a probable 13th-century undercroft were uncovered just west of the ditch F207. The area within the undercroft was not excavated. The foundation trench for the wall (F210) cut away the western edge of the ditch (F207), although the orientation of the undercroft wall along the line of the original edge of the ditch shows the continued importance of the line, this time as a property boundary, into the later period.

The discovery of the two ditches also has important implications for the understanding of the early history of Waterford City. Hiberno-Norse Waterford was situated on a triangular area of land bounded on the north-east by the River Suir and on the south-east by the marshy ground around St John's River, with Reginald's Tower at the apex. The original 10th-century Hiberno-Norse settlement in Waterford is assumed to have been centred on the eastern end of this promontory, around where the later Reginald's Tower now stands, in the area known as Dundory, before it expanded west in an extended period of development. The bulk of the extensive series of excavations in Waterford City in the 1980s and 1990s took place west of this area, so no evidence relating to the 10th-century settlement was uncovered.

Bailey's New Street, which extends north-east/south-west, is situated fairly centrally within the area suspected to be 'Dundory'. It is likely that the ditches (F207 and F226) uncovered in the excavation relate to the defences of the area immediately to the east, and they may mark the western limits of the area that later became known as 'Dundory'.