County: Kilkenny Site name: Ladywell Street, Thomastown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0254
Author: Grace Fegan, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Medieval ditch and agricultural features
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 658206m, N 642201m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.528060, -7.142176
Testing was undertaken, on behalf of The Office of Public Works, at Ladywell Street, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, in advance of the proposed construction of the decentralised Health and Safety Authority offices. The site was located on the edge of Thomastown (KK028–040), in two fields immediately west of Ladywell Street, named after a holy well (KK028–039) north-east of the site. The land slopes gradually down to the east, towards the town and Ladywell Street, from a low hill that has been exploited for gravel extraction. To the south lay outbuildings associated with the nearby post-medieval house Abbey View.
Eight test-trenches were excavated across the site. Below the topsoil (c. 0.3m deep), overburden comprising orange-brown sandy silt was found to have been deposited across the entire site to a maximum depth of c. 1m, and was probably a result of soil erosion from the hill to the west. Subsoil varied across the site from light yellowish-brown sandy silt in the west to very stoney clayey sand in the east. At depth the subsoil was found to be loose, gravelly and stony and provided good drainage for the site.
Beneath the overburden, several small linear field drains and cultivation furrows in addition to a shallow burnt pit were encountered. A large ditch (1.5m deep by up to 3.2m wide) which contained medieval pottery was also found. The ditch was U-shaped in profile and ran roughly east–west from beyond the western edge of the site, and in the centre of the site turned abruptly to the south towards the outbuildings associated with Abbey View. In this southern section the ditch ran partially beneath a parallel extant low bank of soil identical in composition to the overburden that covered the site generally. The ditch and bank were aligned with existing yard/property boundaries to the south and may represent successive changes to those properties. The right-angled ditch, of probable medieval date, may have been a corner of a rectangular enclosure or equally may have been a constituent part of a more extensive field system.
The testing is proposed to be extended by further works in 2008 and, if impact on the archaeological remains cannot be avoided, full resolution will take place under an extension to the testing licence.
