County: Waterford Site name: Waterford
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0325
Author: Maurice F. Hurley, 6 Clarence Court, St Luke’s, Cork.
Site type: Urban, medieval/post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 660628m, N 612321m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.259258, -7.111895
Testing was undertaken at a site bisected by New Street and bounded by Alexander Street, Stephen Street, Brown’s Lane, John’s Lane and Michael Street, to obtain information on the general archaeological content of a site subject to a forthcoming planning application. The site is within the historic core of Waterford city (WA009–005).
Testing revealed an absence of deep, well-preserved archaeological stratigraphy throughout the site and this evidence corroborates evidence from other test-trenches excavated within the area of the site in recent years. There was scant evidence for well-preserved medieval stratigraphy, although a number of features exposed may be of medieval date. Features and strata of post-medieval date (c. ad 1500–1800) were represented, but many trenches revealed a complete absence of archaeological features and strata.
Medieval features (possibly 12th–15th-century) included a trench of brown soil that may be a medieval or post-medieval wall trench. A decayed timber beam at the base of one trench may be a medieval sill-beam but may also be a horizontal beam lying beneath a post-medieval or even 18th/19th-century wall. There was no associated dating evidence and all the associated finds were of modern date.
While a small amount of post-medieval (16th–18th-century) pottery, glass and clay pipes were found, the numbers of artefacts were relatively small. One trench contained a wall of probable post-medieval date. This may represent the significant survival of a stone-walled post-medieval house and may relate to standing remains in the area.
Testing of the south-western block bounded by Brown’s Lane, Castle Street and John’s Lane revealed significant modern disturbance in this area, with the exception of part of the John’s Lane frontage.
The Presbytery grounds revealed significant disturbance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, possibly due to the demolition of 18th-century houses, probably containing basements.
Stephen Street appears to have been lined with 18th-century basemented houses and been subject to later industrial processes and filling of rubble to raise the sub-street frontage.
The Michael Street frontage appears to have been scarped back into the slope when the 18th/early 19th-century houses were built. The street frontage of New Street revealed an absence of archaeological strata; this street also contained three-storey-over-basement buildings of 18th-century date.
