County: Derry Site name: DERRY: St Columb’s Hall, Orchard Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/02/42
Author: Cia McConway, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 643542m, N 916687m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.995878, -7.319528
Assessment and excavation carried out at the rear of St Columb’s Hall, Orchard Street, Derry, uncovered a 1m-deep deposit of black, organic, silty clays underlying 1m of modern overburden. This has been interpreted as part of the 17th-century town ditch that partially enclosed the walled town. Analysis of the pottery recovered from the ditch fill suggests a date of no earlier than the 17th century, which corresponds with the historical date. Most of the pottery has been identified as English and must have been brought into the town by the first planters.
An impression of Derry from c. 1689 illustrates a wide, flat-bottomed ditch enclosing the wall from Bishop’s Gate to halfway along Orchard Street; beyond this lay an orchard. Cartographic evidence suggests that the ditch was quite short-lived and that by the 18th century it was filled and underlay what is now Orchard Street.
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