2010:654 - Bolton Street CarPark, Waterford, Waterford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Waterford Site name: Bolton Street CarPark, Waterford

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0103

Author: Emmet Stafford, Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology, Park, Bree, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.

Site type: Urban, post-medieval

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 659453m, N 612018m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.256665, -7.129163

An existing surface car park at Bolton Street, Waterford, was extended and upgraded by Waterford City Council. The site is located within Waterford city’s zone of archaeological potential, to the south-east of the line of the medieval town walls, on the western bank of John’s River.
The development of the site involved the demolition of modern buildings associated with a local authority stores yard, the installation of a substantial surface water drainage system and the installation of the new car park surface.
Monitoring of groundworks at the site did not uncover any artifacts earlier than the 18th century. The early ceramics recovered lay on top of a series of clay layers which were overlain by 19th- and 20th-century demolition layers and wall footings. These dark, disturbed clay layers overlay a substantial, light-grey-coloured, silt layer. The undated silt layer overlay a compact humic peaty deposit, which suggested that at least the eastern half of the site was once a marshy or boggy area located beside John’s River.
In the western half of the site a deep layer of dark, garden-like, soil was uncovered. This deposit appeared to be related to gardens marked on this part of the site on the 1764 Richards and Scale’s map of Waterford.