County: Waterford Site name: 11 HENRIETTA STREET, WATERFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:9 Licence number: 03E0694 ext.
Author: Orla Scully, 7 Bayview, Tramore, Co. Waterford.
Site type: Urban medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 660880m, N 612436m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.260266, -7.108182
Following limited testing in 2003 (Excavations 2003, No. 1927), further testing was requested by the owner, Waterford City Council. The site is on a hill which leads to the quay, in the oldest part of Waterford city, at the corner of Peter Street and Henrietta Street.
The testing revealed that extensive cellars had underlain earlier buildings. The northern half of the site was almost entirely voided by a cellar, which had limestone-rendered walls with brick relieving arches. The archaeological deposits had been scarped by the cellar. Its floor was of limestone flags, 4.14m OD, embedded in mortar. A strip of land between the cellar and the street frontage was tested to reveal archaeological material 1.4m beneath the present street level. There were also cellars at the southern, higher, side of the site, but organic remains survive underneath them.
In the south-western part of the site, archaeological horizons survived under the cellar floor at 5.748m OD. To the rear of the cellar, archaeological horizons were exposed. These organic silts, undisturbed at a depth of 5.055m OD, produced sherds of Ham Green and Saintonge pottery. They were not associated with any structural remains and were typical of medieval backyard deposits. South and south-west of the cellars in the southern part of the site, parts of what were interpreted as medieval walls were exposed at 5.605m OD and 4.853m OD.
A plan was produced for the City Council indicating the depths of surviving archaeology, with a recommendation that these layers and features be preserved.
