2005:839 - THOMASTOWN, Kilkenny

Monitoring was carried out within the grounds of the former Church of Ireland parish church in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, as part of a planning application for the conversion of the church into residential/commercial premises. St Mary’s Church is located at the north-western end of the town at the junction between Pipe Street and Lady’s Well Street. The church dates to c. 1270 on analogy with Gowran and St Canice’s Cathedral and was attached to the Priory of Inistioge. It originally consisted of an aisled nave with a tower in the south-western corner and a chancel with a sacristy and detached chapel. After the Reformation, only the chancel continued in use as a place for Protestant worship. In 1809, the south wall and the south aisle of the church were removed during the construction of the existing church. The chancel was also taken down, possibly to provide materials for the new church. The main surviving features of the medieval church are the arched north wall, part of the west gable, the north aisle and the chancel arch. The foundations of much of the rest of the church can still be traced.

The development consisted of the change of use of St Mary’s Church to part commercial/retail on the ground floor and residential in the upper level. A fire escape staircase was constructed to the rear of the church and the exterior walls were repaired, with the vaulted ceiling in the tower being retained. The existing windows were restored to their original appearance in terms of glazing configurations and framing profiles. Restoration and remodelling was also carried out within the interior of the building.

A service trench extending from the entrance gates on Market Street to the church tower was excavated to the required depth for the insertion of cables and pipes. The trench measured 0.8m in width and was opened along the east kerbing of a gravelled pathway leading to the church. The depth of the trench varied from 0.5m at the entranceway to the church to 0.68m midway along the trench before reaching a maximum depth of 0.9m at the northern end close to the church tower. The upper 0.1m of the soil profile consisted of a modern gravelled surface. Below this was an uncompacted mid-brown silt containing numerous small pebbles and frequent disarticulated human bone, which were replaced back into the trench prior to backfilling. This layer of disarticulated bone was encountered along the entire length of the trench and represents successive episodes of soil displacement during interment of bodies. A thin layer of slate was exposed beneath the modern gravel pathway close to the doorway of the church. Natural boulder clay was exposed at the northern end of the trench only where the required depth of the pipe trench resulted in the complete removal of the upper layer of buried soil.

A relatively substantial wall was encountered towards the northern end of the trench. It occurred immediately beneath the modern surface of the pathway and was subjected to a certain amount of disturbance during the construction of the driveway and the new church and also perhaps during interment of burials. The wall extended north-east/south-west across the pipeline trench and was made up of two courses of large limestone boulders bonded with lime mortar. The wall first became apparent when disproportionate quantities of loose stone were noted in this area of the trench during machine excavation. The wall measured 0.45m in depth and extended across the trench for a length of 0.96m. The north-east section had been robbed out and to a sufficient depth to allow for the insertion of the service pipe without damage to the surviving fabric of the wall. The interpretation of such a short stretch of wall is difficult, but it may relate to a wall feature visible above the ground to the north-west of the existing church. The western gable of the original medieval church is located 16.5m to the north-east of the exposed wall.