2005:021 - BELFAST: Talbot Street, Antrim

Excavation was divided into two areas, a large area to the west and a smaller area to the east of the retained warehouse. The earliest archaeology uncovered was a wide irregular trench which ran north–south through Area 1 and a gully which ran north–south through Area 2. These two features lay underneath all other excavated features and were principally filled with an organic build-up, indicating that water was flowing through them. Both trench and gully were likely to have been open in the 17th century and it is possible that they drained from Belfast’s 1642 defensive ditch, which was known to lie just west of the development site. The principal remains uncovered were, however, from the terraced housing of the late 18th to early 19th centuries that lay along Hill Street and Talbot Street. The remains comprised the foundation walls of the houses, a number of arched red-brick drains that ran under the houses and several half-buried barrels. The barrels had been sunk into the ground in positions that would have corresponded to the rear yards of the houses and are likely to have been open cesspits for these houses. Later archaeology was limited to a few repairs to the already identified walls and a badly truncated cobbled surface.

638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY