County: Tipperary Site name: GOLDEN CREAMERY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: TI060–097 Licence number: 06E0587
Author: Jo Moran
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 636516m, N 617571m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.308570, -7.464504
In July 2006 eleven test-trenches were cut by machine to assess the archaeological impact of a proposed residential development beside the River Suir at Golden. The site includes part of Main Street, north side, which approaches an old river crossing and overlooks the medieval tower-house on a river island. The development site is almost level, but the former hillside would have sloped to the flood-plain of the Suir. The edge of the former flood-plain will correspond roughly with the east side of the millpond and the tail-race leaving the mill (Building H).
Trenches (1 to 6) on the northern part of the site found little of archaeological interest. A few shallow features appear to be associated with agriculture or horticulture, and track and wall remains are likely to be post-medieval.
Remains of a number of stone buildings were found on the southern part of the site, under the rubble core of the present yard. Truncated walls and floors have survived in the former mill (Building H), under the former creamery, in the south-west corner of the site, and in the space between the present roadside building (C) and the earlier store (Building B). No building remains were found on the flood-plain, west of the former millstream.
Most of the buildings found by excavation are recorded on the 6-inch OS map of 1841, but the one between Buildings B and C must have been demolished by 1840. Although none were found, we can assume remains of earlier mills at the edge of the flood-plain and close to the known mill (Building H). Trench 11 produced indications of relatively early (late medieval?) stone buildings close to Main Street, with the possibility of an earlier medieval settlement here (continuing across the road; 96E0353, Moran, report with the NMS and Excavations 1997, No. 496).
Intact remains of the 18th- or 19th-century mill (Building H), including a paved floor, have survived c. 0.2m below the yard surface. Ground level on the hillside to the east, prior to the completion of the four-storeyed store (Building A), appears to have been lower, at least 0.75m below the present yard.
In the space between Buildings B and C the ground-floor level for an 18th- or early 19th-century building was only 0.3m below present yard level, but the ground fell steadily towards the river. In the south-west corner of the site the clay floor of an 18th- or 19th-century building was 0.4m below the present yard, with the floor of an earlier building a further 0.4m down. However, these levels are rising to the east, close to the floor level of the present roadside building (C). Medieval ground levels may even have been truncated at the south-east corner of the site.
Knockrower Road, Stradbally, Co. Waterford
