County: Wexford Site name: NEW ROSS: 29 Michael Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1857
Author: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 671950m, N 627411m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.393501, -6.942860
An assessment of a development including the demolition of a terraced dwelling-house and the construction of new site access, a site roadway, a car-parking area and twelve two-storey houses at 29 Michael Street, New Ross, was requested by New Ross Town Council. The site lies within the town walls of New Ross, in a part of the town that developed in the second half of the 13th century. The impetus for this development came from the then lord of Leinster, Roger Bigod. He extended the town to the south, from its early 13th-century core axis of Irishtown–Maiden Lane–Bridge Street, and may also have enlarged the mural defences to include Michael Street and lands to the south as far as William Street.
The street name derives from the medieval church of St Michael, which stood nearby and was founded in the early 13th century. The earliest documentary reference to the street occurs in 1280–1: ‘12d for two houses in St Michael’s street’. It is also referred to in a document of 1572: ‘a mease within S. Michael’s street’.
The average width of the 21 extant burgage plots in Michael Street marked on the first-edition OS map is 32ft, although most are 17ft or multiples thereof. This equates roughly to the standard medieval ‘pole’ of 161/2 feet and indicates that this was the standard burgage width stipulated in Roger Bigod’s town charter. The proposed development site is 22m wide and is an amalgamation of four or five medieval plots. Merging the plots has probably distorted the original boundaries, which accounts for the lack of a precise division.
During the 18th century the properties were used by a barracks, situated nearby. The Tottenham estate built houses on the site in the 19th century. Testing at 9 Michael Street by Mary Henry (Excavations 2000, No. 1064, 00E0617) revealed 19th-century midden material over subsoil.
Ten trenches were excavated by machine within the development area. In almost all of the trenches, garden soil containing a mixture of modern and post-medieval pottery was recorded. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.
258 The Sycamores, Kilkenny
