2005:1435 - MAIN STREET, GOLDEN, Tipperary

The foundation trenches for a two-storey extension behind the butcher’s shop on Main Street, Golden, was monitored from 11 to 13 July 2005. The site lies within the zone of archaeological potential for the village of Golden, north-east of the bridge and castle (a late 15th/16th-century tower-house) and south of the Church of Ireland church (19th-century) and graveyard. The graveyard was traditionally known as Relick Murry, retaining the parish name. The earliest surviving record is from the 17th century. The standing building on the street front appears to be 19th-century.
Excavation of the foundation trenches was carried out by hand and caused minimal disturbance to archaeological material but nevertheless produced interesting results. The thick deposit of clay mixed with limestone and lime plaster uncovered in the trenches is likely to be the remains of a demolished cob building. Unfortunately a direct link between the clay and the standing building had been removed by a sewer trench, but the recovered finds suggest that the cob building was demolished by the late 18th/early 19th century and replaced by the present structure, and that it was part of an earlier generation of buildings on the north-east side of the bridge.
A cobble and soil layer overlying the clay was imported, to level up the ground behind the late 18th/early 19th-century (present) building. A wall foundation trench and part of a cobble and metalled surface overlying the levelling layer appeared to be part of an extension to the present building on site.