County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: Exchange Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 9:5 Licence number: 01E0515
Author: Miriam Carroll, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Town
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 660811m, N 612578m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.261548, -7.109178
A site at the junction of High Street and Exchange Street, Waterford, was tested in 2001 by Maurice F. Hurley as part of an assessment (Excavations 2001, No. 1250). It was subsequently recommended that part of the site be excavated before development and that all demolition work and ground disturbance be monitored.
Monitoring of the demolition of existing structures on the site and of pre-development groundworks was undertaken intermittently over several months from July 2002 to January 2003. Groundworks consisted of the excavation of a number of trial-bores, a foundation base for an ESB substation, groundwater monitoring wells and a duct trench on High Street and Exchange Street.
A number of sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from a trial-bore at the northern end of the site. The excavation of the foundation for the ESB substation revealed considerable modern disturbance in this area, and no archaeological deposits were encountered. The excavation of the groundwater well also revealed disturbance that may relate to the 19th-/20th-century occupation of the site. No archaeological finds or features were noted during the excavation of the duct trench on High Street or Exchange Street.
The archaeological excavation of the site is to commence in mid-2003, at which time the development is also likely to begin. Further monitoring of groundworks will be undertaken at that time.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
