County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: 49 Spring Garden Alley
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0201
Author: Orla Scully
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 660867m, N 612324m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.259257, -7.108400
Testing took place in advance of construction of a single structure at 49 Spring Garden Alley, Waterford. The site is of interest owing to its location immediately outside the city wall, adjacent to the site of a medieval gate-tower, Colbeck Castle. Historic references describe the area as ‘a plot of ground commonly called Cawdron’s Garden under the town wall with the old waste tower thereon…’ (1703, lease in Waterford City Archives). The gate-tower was still extant in 1737, when it was demolished by the corporation of the day for safety reasons.
The test-trenches were dug in areas to be disturbed by the building. The findings were consistent with the history of the site in its capacity as a garden. A spring was disturbed during testing, befitting the name of the alley. At the southern side of the site an impressive depth of dark alluvial silt was noted, up to 2.95m below the present surface. This area had once been marshland but was systematically filled in during the 18th century. The building will disturb no structural remains of an archaeological nature.
7 Bayview, Tramore, Co. Waterford
