County: Antrim Site name: 19 Main Street, Kells
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/07/165
Author: Deirdre Malone and Warren Bailie, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, 30–50 Westlink Enterprise Centre, Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 714434m, N 897018m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.808007, -6.219875
This site, which was stripped of topsoil prior to a development of two new houses, consisted of an area that was c. 65m east–west by 40m. Monitoring took place on 15–17 January 2008. The fourth edition OS sheet (1933), which showed the layout of the site towards the middle of the 20th century, suggested the area was undeveloped apart from a linear feature running from the south-east boundary.
The site was stripped of topsoil to a depth of c. 0.3m. The area was taken down to undisturbed subsoil, which consisted of orange/brown silty clay with moderate gravel inclusions. The subsoil was heavily disturbed by a series of services running in various directions across the site. All existing drainage from the retail units as well as the housing estate to the south of the development run towards a main manhole located in the north-east of the site. In addition to this, further subsoil disturbance was evidenced via a number of telecommunication and electrical services on the site.
There was one area of the site which required further investigation. This was an organic deposit located close to the south-east corner. An area measuring 2m by 2m of the organic deposit, which lay 0.6m below ground surface, was exposed and a 1.5m by 2.5m box section was excavated perpendicular to the line of the deposit. The deposit lay on an approximate south-east to north-west orientation as the section faces revealed the extension of the material in these directions. This section was intended to determine the nature and extent of the material and also to confirm or deny the local and cartographic information.
The section revealed a series of layers of foul-smelling organic material existing to a depth of almost 1.8m and measuring c. 1.5m across. This location was consistent with the linear feature observed on the OS map. There were pieces of car bodywork and straw found in the lower levels of the organic deposit. The situation and nature of this deposit was also consistent with information obtained from Mr Sloan (local resident) in relation to the presence of a byre run-off here in the mid-20th century.
No earlier in situ archaeological deposits were found during the investigation.
