County: Longford Site name: LONGFORD: Great Water Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LF013-026 Licence number: 04E1556
Author: Stuart D. Elder, The Archaeology Company
Site type: Industrial site
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 613399m, N 775652m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.730357, -7.796934
The client proposes to build a mews-style dwelling complex with underground car parking on the site of a former sawmill. Adjacent to the river, there is a mill-race on the opposite side of the northern boundary wall exhibiting features such as a wheel pit and sluices, suggesting that the mill was water-powered. Evidence from a series of historical maps shows that the mill buildings went through a series of changes before being demolished. The northern, eastern and southern boundary walls are part of the fabric of these mill buildings.
Three trenches were excavated east-west across the yard of the former mill complex. The yard had a surface of concrete up to 0.08m thick, beneath which there was mostly a deposit of rubble left behind after the demolition of the buildings, utilised as a levelling layer and bed for the concrete yard surface. Several fragments of wall foundation and floor surfaces relating to the former mill complex were located, but these had been heavily disturbed since the end of use of the site and were not considered worthy of preservation.
The southern side of Great Water Street and Water Street appears to be the northern extent of the town proper. There was no indication of town defences or habitation of any date within the confines of the property boundary. All evidence points towards post-medieval industrial activity related to the mill complex.
Birr Technology Centre, Mill Island, Birr, Co. Offaly
