2002:1929 - TAGHMON: Main Street/Back Street, Wexford

In response to a pre-planning enquiry regarding a proposed residential development at Main Street, Taghmon, Co. Wexford, an assessment was requested as part of the planning application. Eight trenches, representing an area of 165m2, revealed several features.

Trench 4 revealed two shallow curvilinear slots, both of which contained stone. These may be the foundation trenches for stone walls. One of the slots, which was only a maximum of 0.08m deep, contained local medieval pottery, and the other, 0.25m deep, contained both local and imported pottery. These truncated features were found directly beneath the modern yard surface.

Trench 8 contained the remains of two subsoil-cut ditches 0.35m below present ground level. The larger was over 2m wide and contained several sherds of medieval pottery similar to that found in the two slots in Trench 4. The smaller ditch terminated in the trench and had two pieces of degraded, possibly medieval pottery in its fill.

Trench 2 contained a gully of indeterminate date, as did Trench 3, although the fill of the latter was very similar to topsoil and suggested a late date. The possible wall foundation uncovered in Trench 1 is consistent with Griffith’s Valuation map, which shows buildings fronting onto Back Street in the 19th century. A similar date can be suggested for the remains uncovered in Trench 6, excavated parallel to Main Street. A large pit in Trench 5, which contained demolition material, was of 20th-century origin, probably associated with a demolished slaughter-house that once occupied the site.

Unit 4, Enniscorthy Enterprise Centre, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford