County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: John’s Bridge, River Nore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0036
Author: Niall Brady, for Project Manager: The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd.
Site type: Bridge and Pier/Jetty
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 650722m, N 655913m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.652042, -7.250365
Underwater investigation of a central area under John’s Bridge as part of the River Nore Flood Alleviation Scheme continued preliminary work carried out in 2000 (Excavations 2000, No. 538). It has confirmed the substantial remains of at least two earlier stone bridges, the first of which was destroyed in the Great Flood of 1763, and the second of which was built shortly afterwards immediately upstream.
Excavation underwater has revealed the constructional history of the bridge site since the 16th century. Large oaken timber beams have been recovered at depth, forming a grid-like pattern that would have supported temporary frames for repair and maintenance works. One of the timbers has been dated to AD 1582 ± 9 (Q10155). It ties in well with a building contract from 1618 that undertook to restore the stone bridge. A further series of softwood timbers has also been identified. These represent the remains of a temporary bridge that was constructed across the ruined medieval site immediately following the 1763 flood. The timbers form three parallel lines, and not infrequently retain the hand-forged iron socks, or shoes, that would have served to break into the underlying gravels during the pile-driving operation to insert the timber posts. Several of the posts exceed 2m in surviving length.
The new stone bridge that fully replaced its medieval predecessor was completed in 1772. It was a three-arched design, based on the work of the Renaissance architect Palladio. In 1910, having fallen into disrepair, it was in turn replaced by the present John’s Bridge, which spans the river over the medieval structure. Examination of the western pier of the late 18th-century bridge reveals a series of stone plinths constructed within a timber-shuttering frame.
The underwater work on the medieval site has occasioned an additional and quite unexpected revelation. Within the small central area that has been investigated, a large number of medieval gravestones have been uncovered at the base of the collapsed masonry from the bridge. The assemblage includes fragments of highly ornate stonework, among which are the remains of a 13th-century sarcophagus and a 14th-century incised gravestone, whose representation of an ecclesiastic is an identical twin to one of the slabs that forms part of the collection in St Canice’s Cathedral. A large collection of small finds has also been recovered.
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