County: Wexford Site name: WEXFORD: 8–10 Main Street North
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0213
Author: Emmet Stafford, Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 704859m, N 621817m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.337927, -6.461237
Monitoring of demolition works and ground reduction was undertaken within the line of the medieval defences of Wexford town, on the eastern side of North Main Street, to the north of Anne Street, between 1 July and 15 August 2002. The development site may be immediately outside the limits of the Hiberno-Norse defended town. After the Anglo-Norman invasion, the defences were extended to the north to encompass the site at North Main Street.
The redevelopment of the site involved the complete gutting of the basement level and above-ground demolition work. The monitoring of demolition and construction-related groundworks revealed no features of archaeological significance. It was noted that the building was constructed directly over undisturbed natural geology at the front of the site and that post-medieval ground reduction may have removed any earlier archaeological deposits in this area. Toward the rear of the site the natural ground level fell sharply, and post-medieval made ground overlay an undated clay layer at a depth of over 2m below present ground level. It is likely that coastal inundation once extended as far inland as the rear boundary of the site and that this clay layer represents estuarine silts or the first in a series of reclamation layers.
Unit 4, Enniscorthy Enterprise Centre, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
