2009:AD16 - LOMAN STREET, TRIM, Meath

During the Trim Street reconstruction project on Loman Street a significant number of archaeological features and deposits were uncovered in the course of monitoring under ministerial consent. The results have significant implications for the development of the early medieval ecclesiastical site and the later medieval town. Trim was known to be the site of a monastery associated with the British missionary Lomm$n, first mentioned in an 8th-century document and therefore significantly earlier (Potterton 2009, 26). The location of this foundation was unclear and previous authors had suggested both the area of the castle or on the hilltop on the northern side of the river at the present-day St Patrick’s Cathedral on Loman Street. Previous excavations uncovered burials, including an individual dated to the 9th to 11th century to the east of the medieval chancel (Kieran 2009, 72–81). The location of at least one major focus of early medieval activity was identified during monitoring and excavation.
Early medieval
Directly outside St Patrick’s Cathedral on Loman Street, five east–west supine human burials were uncovered under the pavement and boundary wall of the cathedral, B1–B5. A further single burial, B6, also pre-dating the church walls, was identified under the southern pillar of the main gate to the church. They were in simple grave-cuts and some burials were overlying one another, indicating multiple phases of burial. The burials were below the levels required for the development and were recorded but not excavated. A sample of human bone from Burial 1 was radiocarbon-dated to cal AD 430–640 (Wk–25840). Burials clearly continued to the west of the trench.
A possible ditch or pit was identified c. 1m north of Burial 2. It was truncated badly in the east-facing section by a cast-iron water main and was at least 1.3m in diameter. It truncated the natural subsoil and measured greater than 1.4m and greater than 0.4m in depth. The feature was cut by a later hearth, up to 0.8m in diameter.

A large ditch cutting natural subsoil was identified almost 5.5m north of these features. It measured a minimum of 0.6m east–west by 5.7m in width. It was below the required depth for development. Its upper fill was cut by a hearth, 1.3m in diameter.
Medieval
The early medieval features under the footpath outside the cathedral were succeeded and sealed by a series of medieval street surfaces.
The earliest surface comprised tightly compacted rounded to angular stones and measured no more than 0.08m in depth. North–south features within the metalling suggested tyre ruts. Almost 31m of the metalling was exposed within the trench and a further area was exposed within the middle of Loman Street. At the northern end of the trench this was overlain by a series of dumped deposits of ash, charcoal and oyster shell, containing medieval pottery. This was overlain by a later phase of cobbles. Exposed within the east-facing section of the trench a possible step feature, comprising three flat stones, was also identified above the general deposits.
The archaeology identified included medieval deposits associated with the land reclamation of the southern end of Loman Street/Mill Street. Organic-rich deposits, previously encountered during monitoring by Rosanne Meenan (Excavations 1996, No. 315, 96E175), were uncovered at the junction of Loman Street and Mill Street and extended northwards up Loman Street for c. 25m. Situated above organic deposit F3040 was a stony mid-to light-brown silty clay which contained oyster shell and animal bone along with fragments of medieval pottery sherds. The deposit was 0.35m in depth. It contained medieval pottery and is likely to have been part of the flood-plain of the River Boyne.
Further north a further large ditch or pit feature, 7m in width, was excavated to 1.2m in depth, directly opposite Church Lane on the western side of the street. It was heavily truncated on the western and northern sides by cast-iron water mains. Ten separate deposits comprised of clayey silts and containing animal bone, charcoal, stones and pebbles were contained within. The feature continued below the level of the development and no artefacts were recovered.
At the northern end of the street the trench opposite Souhan’s Garage and north of the rectory revealed a very substantial ditch and wall of probable medieval date. Both were below the level required for development and only the top of these medieval archaeological deposits were recorded. The east–west ditch was located at the northern end of the trench and measured up to 9m in width and was greater than 0.4m in depth. The remains of a large collapsed east–west wall of large squared limestone blocks bonded with mortar were found within the midpoint of the ditch at its southern end. It had partially collapsed, with only one course visible and a recorded width of 1.4m and more than 0.3m in depth. The wall was sealed by one of the upper fills of the ditch. The deposits abutting the wall on its northern edge were organic in character. The ditch continued below the level required for the pipe and was recorded and samples recovered for radiocarbon-dating. No artefacts were recovered from within. Monitoring indicated that this ditch may have crossed the road and continued eastwards.
Late/postmedieval deposits outside St Patrick’s Cathedral
The medieval metalled street surfaces under the pavement west of St Patrick’s Cathedral were cut by a number of features and sealed by deposits which all pre-date the boundary wall of the cathedral, which appears on mid-18th-century maps and therefore predate it. The first pit was 3m north of the main entrance to St Patrick’s and measured more than 0.4m in depth and cut the earliest metalled surfaces, F3065. This was cut by a U-shaped pit 0.3m in depth. These pits were sealed by light-greyish-brown silt containing much charcoal, oyster shells and animal bone along with medieval pottery sherds. It extended from close to the main pedestrian entrance of St Patrick’s and continued for c. 22m north along Loman Street until it terminated c. 6m short of the southern boundary wall of St Patrick’s. This was overlain by greyish-brown clay silt of loose compaction containing frequent sub-angular and rounded stones and measured 0.2m in depth. This was sealed by the 19th-century cobbled surface, which in turn was sealed by a rubble deposit containing red brick, 19th–20th-century pottery, iron nail and glass.
Postmedieval burials in the cemetery of St Patrick’s
Electricity cabling within the graveyard from the pedestrian entrance to St Patrick’s from Loman Street to the presbytery required the excavation of a pipe trench under the access path. Underlying the gravel surface of the path was a deposit of mid-brown clay silt which contained round to angular hand-sized stones, human and animal bone along with moderate charcoal flecks and mortar. It was up to 0.45m in depth and contained a wide range of artefacts including medieval pottery, a stick-pin, line-impressed floor tiles along with post-medieval pottery and roof slates. Significant numbers of iron objects were recovered including a medieval prick spur. All deposits were sieved and contained a large quantity of disarticulated human bone. This deposit is likely to have accumulated during church rebuilding in 1802. This overlay a total of fourteen burials. The burials were cut into brown clay silt. Two globular-headed shroud pins were recovered from Burial 7, and one each from Burials 9 and 14. Six burials, B11, B15, B16, B18–B20, were left in situ, while the remaining eight were removed.
Late/postmedieval features on Loman Street
Further south on either side of Loman Street two drystone wells, possibly medieval in date, were located in close proximity to Sarsfield Avenue. The first well was found just south of Sarsfield Avenue on the western side of the street. It was made up of rounded stone courses and measured 1.25m in diameter with a depth of greater than c. 2m. The well had been previously backfilled and its actual depth was unknown. It had been covered by a timbered lid. It was incorporated into the subsequent street design. The second well was exposed on the eastern side of Loman Street beneath the footpath directly opposite Sarsfield Avenue. The well was sealed by two large capstones made of limestone. The well measured 1.6m in diameter and was made up of rounded courses of stone and was greater than 2m in depth. Neither well was present on the early Ordnance Survey mapping.

Post-medieval walls were uncovered within front gardens of the houses on the eastern side of the street at this location and, on the western side, a cobbled surface of probable post-medieval date was exposed adjacent to the well at the Loman Street/Sarsfield Avenue intersection.
Postmedieval features north of Church Lane
One course of a north-west/south-east wall was located 1.7m east from the existing garden wall of the house opposite Church Lane. The exposed length was 3m by 0.3m and more than 0.3m deep.
On the western side of Loman Street opposite the entrance to Souhan’s Garage a north-east/south-west mortared wall was uncovered. It was a maximum of three courses in depth and ran beyond the trench on either side. It was found within a post-medieval deposit and seemed to have the same alignment as now demolished 19th-century houses which fronted Loman Street to the south-east. On the eastern side of the street the remains of a two-coursed north–south mortared wall were identified c. 3m north of the boundary wall of St Patrick’s Cathedral, no more than 0.4m in depth. The wall is depicted on the 1836 OS map of Trim as a boundary wall associated with the properties on the eastern side of Loman Street. It had previously been uncovered by Meenan in 1996 during pipe-laying (see above). Found on the western side of the wall, a rubble deposit was exposed. It comprised large cut blocks and rounded stones similar to that of the north–south-orientated wall and measured 0.4m deep. It continued under the existing wall of the house immediately north of the church. It is most likely that the rubble deposit was associated with the destruction of the 19th-century houses which are depicted on the 1836 OS map of Trim and the consolidation of the ground level in the area.
Post-excavation work is continuing and will provide further important information on the archaeology of the northern part of the settlement.