2005:1511 - WATERFORD: St John's Priory, Waterford

Previous testing within the nave of St John’s Priory revealed a portion of the base of what was interpreted to be the original north wall of the priory, razed to a finished level with the debris thrown inwards (Excavations 2003, No. 1938, 03E1830). The burial ground was levelled, gravestones removed and a substantial deposit of backfill material was introduced over the whole area. This was not earlier than the end of the 19th century. Testing indicated the infilling was up to 1m deep. Permission was sought to remove the overburden from within the walls of the priory by machine, and by hand where proximal to the walls. The infill poses a possible threat to the stability of the standing remains of the priory. The excavated soil was spread in the adjacent park and searched through for finds. The topsoil and redeposited topsoil yielded modern material, with a preponderance of pennies, probably lost by children using the park in the ’50s and ’60s.

Most significantly, on removal of the introduced overburden, established as such in the testing, the mortar surface found during testing, and interpreted as a possible floor level, was found to pertain to repair work carried out the during the 20th century; i.e. post-dating a photograph which was printed in 1896. Under this layer was dark-brown silt in which much broken glass and pottery was evident. At this level was the base of the funeral monument exposed in the testing. Also uncovered was a recumbent gravestone belonging to the Preston family, which included a ‘Simon Preston, Register [sic] of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore’.

The finds from this level were invariably early modern. The threshold exposed in the western end wall in the 2003 testing was fully exposed after the removal of overburden. It was made of concrete. The wider break around the blocked doorway could be ascertained and the blocking around the doorway contained some brick.

The partly demolished wall that divided the chancel from the nave is of recent (apparently early 1980s) construction, although its fabric undoubtedly contains some original material from the site. It was built to screen off the gravestones and Wyse’s tomb from the public park. It will ultimately be removed during conservation work. The church has an undifferentiated nave and chancel, although it is believed by some (Ben Murtagh, pers. comm.) that the chancel may have been destroyed in antiquity, leaving only the nave.
The west wall abuts the south wall and is not bonded into it. This infers a later date for the west wall. It may have been an internal wall, or indeed may relate to a crossing tower. Alternatively, it may have been erected at the time of building the houses at the rear and front of the priory in Parliament Street, constructed in the 18th century.

The buried north wall of the priory nave was excavated by hand. A length of 10.4m was re-exposed. Several features were evident in the newly revealed wall, but not fully exposed. A section of the interior face of the wall had some render surviving. A rendered face (A), at right angles through the wall, faced a possibly matching face (B), unrendered, partially obscured by collapsed stone. This may have formed a niche or base of a window, or even a blocked doorway. The distance between the two faces is 1.3m. The easternmost face is slightly splayed. Another well-defined though unrendered face, C, was seen 2.8m west of face B. At the western end of the newly exposed wall was a pit, c. 0.6m wide, with a loose earthy fill that had occasional stones and was interpreted as a robber trench; i.e. stones were removed for building elsewhere. This may be contemporary with the repair work carried out in the last century prior to the infilling. The features within the newly exposed wall would be further elucidated if the collapsed fill were removed. This would require specific permission under an extension to the present consent.

At the outer, northern side of the wall, some disarticulated bone was visible in the section. This concurred with the findings of the testing. No bone was removed from this context.

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