2004:1298 - NAVAN: 40 Canon Row/Kennedy Road, Meath

The client received planning permission to demolish existing structures on the site and to develop it in two phases. Phase 1 comprises demolition and subsequent building on the Kennedy Road end of the site. Phase 2, fronting on to Canon Row, will follow on when Phase 1 is completed.

The site lies outside the area of the walled town. Bradley (95) noted that Canon Row was built up in the 16th century. At the time of the Civil Survey in 1654 there were 'fourteene tennts with theire gardens & all ye Tenemets & gardens on the North side of Cannon-row Street wth out west gate' (Simington 222). The Kennedy Road area of Navan comprised open fields until the 1970s.

Following on from the discovery of medieval features by Alan Hayden on the adjoining site to the west (No. 1297, Excavations 2004), it was considered desirable to carry out pre-development testing of the Phase 1 area of this site.

No structures were exposed in the five test-trenches, but a small number of cut features were observed, in general concentrated in the southern portion of the site. They did not produce pottery, although one sherd of medieval pottery and one sherd of late medieval pottery were recovered from the garden soil. The features were similar to some extent, although less substantial, to the features on the adjoining site that were interpreted as medieval by Hayden.

Monitoring of foundation trenching (Phase 1) was subsequently carried out. No further features other than those exposed in the testing were revealed and no artefacts were recovered from them.

Phase 2 of the development is still to take place.

References
Bradley, J. The urban survey for County Meath. Unpublished.
Simington, R.C. 1940 The Civil Survey AD 1654–1656: County of Meath.

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath