2006:2121 - Cross Street, New Ross, Wexford

Planning permission was granted for the development of a site at Cross Street. As a condition of the planning permission an archaeological assessment to include testing was required. The area of the proposed development lay within the walled town of New Ross (WX029–013) and close to the site of the hospital and church of St Saviour’s (WX029–013(11)). The proposed development was located on a derelict site fronting Cross Street. Houses built on the street frontage in the 19th century were demolished about ten years ago. The site sloped from west to east and was surrounded on three sides by standing buildings.
The site consisted of a 19th-century street-fronting building and a backyard (sub-street) building surrounding a central enclosed yard. The natural surface of the subsoil (shale rock) sloped from the south-east to the north-west. The 19th-century buildings were erected on the natural shale subsoil/rock at the north-east and east of the site, but, at the south-west and west, a layer of rubble (stone, mortar and brick) was used to raise the ground by c. 0.4m. The rubble was a 19th-century deposit, with the exception of a single sherd of North Devon sgraffito ware. No material older than the 19th century was present within the trenches excavated on the site.
There were no features of archaeological importance apparent in the soil of the trenches.