2003:494 - DUBLIN: 24–26 Ardee Street, Dublin

The excavation of this 1.5ha site was preceded by an assessment carried out in April. The excavation proper began in October and will finish in February 2004. The site occupies the corner of Ardee Street and Cork Street and is bounded to the west by Robinson’s Court and to the north by a large masonry and brick wall which was constructed c. 1680. The assessment located a substantial deposit of sterile silty clay over most of the site, which, on excavation, proved to be the silted-up remains of a millpond associated with the abbey of St Thomas.

The Poddle, or a section of the Poddle (the Abbey Stream), diverted by the abbey probably between 1190 and 1212, runs along the eastern perimeter of the site. A natural watercourse, the Commons Water, bisects the site and drained the area prior to the diversion of the Poddle, presumably feeding the millpond. This is represented by the bulk of the material on the site, a water-deposited silty clay, the flat base of which has been established in trial-pits up to 3m below the present ground surface. The local stratigraphy in this area suggests that significant quantities of redeposited subsoil and other material were dumped over the pond fill in the 17th century, probably to consolidate the ground for building.

The Commons Water, which was culverted by Dublin Corporation in 1874, forms part of the historical boundary of the city’s jurisdiction and was thus along the route of the riding of the franchises. The 1603 procession has been documented in Gilbert (1889–1944) and the account strongly suggests that the millpond was silted up by this date. Edward Brabazon, the earl of Meath and the inheritor of the monastic lands of St Thomas and Donore, had planks laid along the route on this occasion to facilitate the mayor and his retinue as they traversed the site (Gilbert, i, 187).

The relationship between the Abbey Stream and the Commons Water has yet to be extrapolated. The latter presumably followed the contour and ran down the Coombe to meet the original course of the Poddle and sections of it were still open above ground there in the early 19th century. The Poddle/Abbey Stream was still open in 1756 but was culverted along the Ardee Street stretch c. 1820. The junction of both watercourses lies below a protected structure along the Ardee Street frontage and it is likely that subsequent works have removed the archaeological evidence of their confluence. It would appear likely, however, that the millpond pre-dates the diversion of the Poddle and the creation of the Abbey Stream. On the basis of a set of levels taken along the base of the pond, it would appear likely that the original extent of the millpond is marked today by the northern precinct wall of the site. The remainder of the millpond fill will be removed as the penultimate phase of the excavation of the site.

The northern extremity of the site was extensively tested as part of the initial assessment. A large double culvert was found to extend from the west in a similar build to the Victorian drains and culverts which were constructed around the city from the 1860s onwards. The culvert was not live and the crown of the brick arch appeared to have been broken some time after the 1940s (when it was a popular meeting place for local mitchers). The culvert was re-excavated and its extent planned and levelled over the western half of the area. Its extent to the east will be monitored when further ground reduction takes place.

An initial search through the records of the City Council’s Main Drainage Section has so far not yielded any further information on this culvert and it may turn out to be a successor to an unrecorded Poddle diversion. There is also the possibility that the culvert marks a previous course of the Commons Water, which may have been diverted slightly to the south in the early 18th century. The projected line of the culvert lines up with the Coombe to the east, which was along the route of the riding of the franchises. It is tempting, therefore, to speculate that the mayor and his retinue continued directly to the south-west after crossing Ardee Street, rather than dog-legging to the south and then west again, along the line of the watercourse as depicted in 1756. This theory is supported by the slight curvature of the 1680 boundary wall which continues to be evident on historical maps either side of the site.

It is likely that the site was intensely developed from the 1660s to the 1670s, although the nature of this development is still unclear. This period began to see an influx of Protestants and Dissenters into Brabazon’s liberties, most of whom appear to have been engaged in the textile industry. The ready availability of water from the various watercourses running through the area facilitated other industries such as brewing and tanning, both of which are represented on-site.

The south-western corner of the site was occupied from the 1690s to c. 1800 by a small tannery, most of which was excavated. The tannery appears on a 1703 lease map in the National Library, where it is described as a ‘new tan yard’, while the will of the tanner, who died in 1697, survives in a memorial in the Registry of Deeds. The tannery is depicted on Rocque (1756), but does not appear on the first edition of the OS (1837).

The evidence for the tannery in this area consisted of two main working areas, arranged into two lines of compartments of five pits and one line consisting of two separate compartments, all oriented east–west. A further arrangement of pits was located to the west, outside of the area of excavation. The five stone-lined pits situated along the Commons Water (an open stream throughout the period of the tannery’s life) were the initial receptacles for the hides. A limey malodorous fill constituted the initial solution, where the hair and rough skin would be removed. The hides were then scraped off and transferred to the next line of pits, which was cut into the millpond fill below, the clay acting as an effective sealant. The stone-lined pits were eventually backfilled with domestic refuse, suggesting the tannery went out of use towards the end of the 18th century. The second and third lines of pits excavated were all compartments of the one large cut. The lines of pits were separated by a cobbled surface, which appears to have been repaired periodically. The central compartment of the second line retained a timber lining. On excavation it was found that the compartment had been prefabricated and dropped into the cut.

The third line occupied the southern half of the cut and consisted of two compartments. The eastern compartment (against the plot boundary wall) was 1.5m deeper than the western one and had been cut through the primary fills. It retained its timber lining, which proved to be a prefabricated box. The western compartment had evidence for a timber lining based on the rebates for staves cut into the surrounding clay. The timbers here were subsequently removed but four planks survived along the base of the cut. It is possible that a recut (which was twice the size of the eastern, timber-lined compartment) was specifically cut to accommodate the insertion of the timber box. The primary fills were evident in the section of the recut and suggest that the primary pit was intermittently filled with crushed bark and slippage from the clay sides. The box was in turn filled with milled bark and was of a size to accept complete hides. Several shoes and a fragment of a large boot were recovered from the fills. The final fills were filled with domestic rubbish and builders’ debris, the latter containing significant amounts of glazed roof tile. All fills contained quantities of black-glazed earthenware and creamwares, animal bone and leather scraps. The absence of tin-glazed earthenwares is significant, as is the presence of kiln tiles in the final fills.

A further stone-lined compartment to the south, again against the eastern plot boundary wall, contained several hundred horn cores, a by-product of the tanning industry. The outer parts of the cores were sold on to button makers and the cores discarded on-site.

A 5m baulk was maintained along the western perimeter of the site to avoid undermining the boundary wall. The edge of another pit was exposed just inside the area of excavation, but the feature was not investigated further. It appeared that the pit was also stave-lined and its southern edge was collinear with the southern edge of the large excavated pit. Its east–west dimensions were probably equal to that of the excavated pits to the east. A drain ran just inside the area of excavation, which, running between them, presumably assisted the slop out of both sets of pits. It discharged into the Commons Water and had a timber base and brick sides. It was capped by limestone slabs and then cobbled over, a twin line of elongated cobbles marking parts of its course.

A portion of the tannery functioned as a yard throughout the 19th century, albeit rather a soggy one. Rough cobbling was laid over the pits, which included broken fragments of kiln tile from the adjacent brewery. Subsequent ground build-up of approximately 1m seems to have occurred as a result of the plot becoming a no man’s land, and dumping from Robinson’s Court to the west was facilitated by an entrance through the boundary wall which still exists. A high proportion of kiln tile fragments in the F1 deposit would suggest that the plot was also used as a dump by the occupants of the brewery to the east. The domestic properties associated with the tannery will be investigated in 2004.

At the corner of Ardee Street and the widened Cork Street, a building sequence was recorded stretching back from the 19th century to at least the 17th. At the time of writing, the earliest deposit would appear to be a dense, compacted organic layer with some evidence emerging of a wattle-lined structure. There were several finds of locally produced medieval pottery and Saintonge from the deposits above, but the majority of the assemblage was composed of imported wares from the Rhineland and the potteries of North Devon and Bristol/Staffordshire.

Stratified above the organic deposit was a level surface of grey clay, which extended across three post-medieval property plots. Within the westernmost plot the clay sealed what appeared to be natural subsoil; however, this material was deliberately deposited as a formal surface at some time in the early 1600s. Further east, a building sequence was recorded over the clay surface, the earliest of which is a rectangular structure of calp limestone. A structure of handmade red brick in the central plot to the east currently has stratigraphical parity with the stone structure and may represent a building phase from the 1660s.

Associated with the earliest stone structure was a brick-lined cistern, which was supplied with water directly from the adjacent Abbey Stream by means of a timber conduit with a 5'' bore. An overflow drain extended from the top of the cistern towards the north. The relative size of the bore would suggest that the associated space was not a domestic one and was more than likely part of a brewery. The flow was controlled by a tap or sluice, probably where the water was drawn from the Poddle. One possibility is that the brewery belonged to William Brookes, who in 1705 inherited this plot of land from his father. A brewer, William Brookes appears in the 1680 Dublin City Pipe Water Accounts in St Catherine’s parish, but it is unlikely that he was paying the Corporation for water taken from a supply owned by the earl of Meath and the earlier brewery was probably situated along the City Watercourse.

Stratified above the cistern were several demolition deposits associated with the latest building on the site. This appears on the first edition of the OS, but only the southern wall survived on the 1866 edition. The surviving structure displayed evidence for several alterations, failures and rebuilds, prior to its final collapse. Four large ‘French’ millstones were reused in the foundation courses, further suggesting the presence of a mill in the general area.

To the north-east of this activity was a semi-basement which cut a silty clay similar to that filling the millpond. It is unlikely, however, that the millpond extended this far east and the deposit is probably associated with the Abbey Stream, which runs alongside. This was presumably much wider than its culverted width and this side of the watercourse probably silted up after the masonry channel was constructed at the end of the 17th century. The semi-basement cut the conduit supplying the cistern; the builders, however, neatly brought the conduit into the space, which functioned as a larger cistern, replacing the earlier one outside. An inserted rubble masonry structure in one corner probably supported a secondary corner fireplace on the ground-floor level.

At the time of writing, this area is being extended to the north along the western side of the Abbey Stream. Evidence is already emerging of a defensive bank, constructed c. 1650, to defend the city from parliamentarian troops. This defensive feature is depicted on the Down Survey and this is its first appearance in the archaeological record. It is hoped that the surviving medieval stratigraphy in this area will establish a relative chronology for the millpond and the creation of the watercourse.

The foundations of several masonry walls have been recorded over the central part of the site, over the material that was dumped to consolidate the millpond. The structures date to the 18th century and are depicted on the first edition of the OS as being single-storey sheds. An exact correlation with the structures depicted by Rocque is problematic, but it is quite likely that some of the walls pre-date his survey. Despite the fact that the structures appear to have been single-storey, the foundations are quite deep and wide. One structure towards the west of the area is founded on a raft of limestone slabs, which supports a level of limestone rubble below a mortar floor. The space was accessed from the west through a narrow entrance between gate piers, which used two discarded millstones as bases. The complex of structures forms part of a second brewery, which was established here in the early 18th century. The depth of the foundations is a function of the instability of the millpond fill material and it would appear that a certain degree of dereliction had set in during the middle of the 19th century, after the brewery had changed hands several times.

The excavation of this area has been assisted by a lease map dating from 1793. This is being used as a corrective to Rocque and as an adequate precursor to the OS. The excavation has touched upon important aspects of the morphology of the area, identifying the location of the abbey millpond within a semi-rural landscape. This feature shaped the street layout, which has survived to the present day. The later industrial development of the area has also been investigated, with the excavation of the tannery to the west and the continuing excavation of the possible brewery and domestic structures to the east. The latter area is producing a pottery assemblage similar to that recovered by the writer in Smithfield (Excavations 2002, No. 577, 00E0272), with a more pronounced emphasis on the earlier 17th-century imports. The clay-pipe assemblage is significantly different to that recorded by Bill Frazer at Newmarket (see No. 560, Excavations 2003). A significant number of pipes appear to be Dutch imports dating to a period prior to the 1662 Act to Encourage Protestant Strangers to Settle in Ireland. This may suggest an origin for the early occupants of the structures, which may well be corroborated by the historical research being undertaken by Peter Walsh.

Reference
Gilbert, J.T. 1889–1944 Calendar of ancient records of Dublin, in the possession of the municipal corporation of that city, Dublin, i, 187.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin