2005:1513 - WATERFORD: Urban Renewal, Waterford

The Broad Street urban renewal scheme is concerned with the upgrading of the city centre, from Broad Street to Michael Street, eastward to include Peter Street, Lady Lane, Arundel Lane and Blackfriars and to the west Patrick Street. Sub-surface excavations undertaken as part of the scheme have consisted of the replacement of some drains, sewers, ESB and Eircom. Extra ducting for future telecommunications has also been inserted.

The monitoring strategy employed consisted of the recording of in situ archaeological material. The primary concern was to avoid any damage to surviving structures, such as any portion of the city wall or any associated gateway or defensive tower. In the event of encountering such remains the aim was to ensure that all cables, ducts and pipes were diverted in order that in situ preservation be maintained.

To date, subsurface work has occurred in the following areas: Patrick Street, Michael Street, Lady Lane, Peter Street, Broad Street, Blackfriars Street and Arundel Lane. Medieval material, to various extents, was encountered within Michael Street, Broad Street and Peter Street. The 13th-century medieval city boundaries have been defined at Peter Street and formal medieval road surfaces and the contemporary ground surface levels have been established in Michael Street, Broad Street and Peter Street. Evidence for the casual and, also, organised (pit cutting) dumping of refuse outside the boundaries of the medieval town have been recorded at Michael Street and Broad Street.

Michael Street
A medieval pit was recorded in the west-facing section. Artefacts recovered from the fill of the pit consisted of cut animal bone, two sherds of Ham Green ware and a sherd of Saintonge ware.

A large stone-built culvert on a north–south alignment was exposed in the central area of the street. It should be noted that Michael Street/Broad Street contain a system of large stone-built culverts whose construction has been dated, through archival city records (M/PV/36), to the first half of the 19th century.

As the trench was extended southwards, extensive disturbance was noted. This disturbance was caused during the construction of feeder drains (stone-built and on east–west alignments) into the larger central culvert. Some undisturbed pockets of medieval material were recorded. One area contained a layer of organic silt overlying boulder clay. A piece of uncut antler was recovered from the organic silt which occurred at 0.35m below the modern footpath. Inclusions of oyster shell were noted. Two sherds of medieval cooking ware were recovered. A little further south, a continuation of this horizon was exposed. It occurred at 0.46m below the road surface and yielded two sherds of Ham Green ware.

At the junction of Michael Street/Lady Lane archaeological horizons were recorded at a depth of 1.28m below the existing road surface. A deposit of black organic material was overlain by a sealing deposit of compact, buff clay. Further to the north a small portion of a medieval street surface was exposed at 0.6m below the modern road. This was covered by an organic silt deposit which, presumably, accumulated on the surface during its use. The silt contained animal bone and oyster shell.

An earth-cut pit was recorded towards the northern extent of Michael Street. The base of the pit occurred at 1.1m below the existing street surface and impacted on the underlying boulder clay. The fill consisted of a dark-brown to black silty organic deposit. A deposit of dumped burnt material was recorded at 0.72m below the existing road. Further north towards the Peter Street junction a third earth-cut pit was recorded. The pit truncated the sod horizon and contained a loose, mid-brown organic silt fill. A sealing layer of compacted buff clay overlay the pit. A layer of humic silt interspersed with clay fragments extended northwards from the pit. It is possible that the pit was cut from the level at which the silt accumulated.

Broad Street
Two large culverts cut through Broad Street on north–south alignments, one at the eastern extent and the other at the western extremity adjacent to Patrick Street. A third culvert enters Broad Street from Little Patrick Street at the north-west. The construction trenches for these culverts truncated the medieval remains in many areas.

A pit was recorded at the north-western end of the street at the western side. Finds from the fill of the pit included two sherds of Ham Green ware, cut animal bone and horn (both cow and pig), oyster shell, antler, five leather soles and one upper, and numerous leather off-cuts.

Immediately beyond the limits of the pit (at its southern extent), traces of a medieval road surface were recorded. A bedding horizon of crushed stone and sand overlay the boulder clay. The surface itself consisted of a mix of slabs and cobbles and was covered by a deposit of compacted organic silt material. One sherd of medieval ware was recovered from this horizon, and a second sherd was retrieved from the bedding layer. The surface continued south for a distance of over 3m and may have been constructed to provide access to the large pit.

A second pit was recorded at the central point of the eastern side of the street. It was truncated horizontally and vertically by existing services and by a large culvert located to the west. The base of the pit did not show within the confines of the trench. The fill had inclusions of fish bone, cockle, mussel and oyster shell, cut animal bone and one sherd of medieval ware. The backfill of the construction trench for the culvert, which impinged on the pit, contained contemporary chinaware fragments and cut animal bone, presumably disturbed from their original medieval context when the culvert was built during the 19th century.

Further north, an organic silt lens was recorded in the eastern portion of the trench at a depth of 0.6m below the existing road level. One sherd of medieval ware was recovered from this horizon, which may be indicative of the level from which the pit was cut.

Peter Street
The western end of Peter Street (i.e. by the junction of Peter Street, Broad Street and Michael Street) contained 18th/19th-century cellars that had been modified considerably during their period of use (blocking of opes, different internal rendering, etc.). These cellar walls extended eastwards to the line of the medieval city wall. Where the city wall was exposed by the urban renewal scheme, it was found that the later cellar builders had partially incorporated the medieval wall into their construct, adding (in some areas) a cladding and render to the west-facing aspect of the city wall.

The city wall was truncated, in areas, by existing services, but it was possible to plot its line as it traversed the trench. The wall had a maximum width of c. 1.45m. In all areas, the true base of the wall continued below the exposed depth of the urban renewal trench. At the northern limit of the trench, however, the contemporary ground surface level was marked by a stone-flagged surface. The organic-rich silt which overlay the flags and abutted the east face of the wall contained a high density of worked antler material. The stone surface was recorded at c. 1.46m below the modern road level.

A second wall, orientated east–west, abutted the city wall in the central area of the modern street. The upper levels of the city wall were partially breached at its eastern face and the later wall was slotted into the opened gap. In this manner the later wall stood partly inside the breached core of the city wall. This later wall had a maximum width of 1.34m and an exposed depth of 1.6m. The wall extended eastwards for a distance of 8.94m, at which point it was truncated by cellar walls. The time differential between the construction of the city wall and the later wall may not be great, as a rim sherd from a Minety-type tripod pitcher was recovered from the core of the later wall. The later wall may be an inserted defensive feature or, more likely, may represent the street-fronting aspect (onto medieval Peter Street) of a medieval undercroft. An alternative route for the pipes and cables, which avoided all medieval standing structures, was agreed upon.

At the junction of Peter Street with Bakehouse Lane an isolated series of consecutive medieval house floors and associated features were recorded alongside the modern street frontage at the south side of the street. The walls of the house did not occur within the limits of the trench and the floors were truncated at their northern extent by a post-medieval wall.

Fern Cottage, Carrigcastle, Ballylaneen, Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford