2011:482 - MAUDLIN STREET/CASTLE STREET/JOHN STREET/CROSS STREET/FARRELL STREET/NEW MARKET STREET/MARKET STREET/NEWMARKET STREET/CHURCH STREET/SUFFOLK STREET/CANNON STREET/TOWNPARKS, KELLS, Meath

Pipeline trench excavations for the BGE Kells Feeder Main within the walled area of the historic town were monitored. The trenches were 0.6m and 1m wide, to accommodate one or two pipes. No evidence for the town wall was identified in the trenches. Archaeological remains were uncovered along the eastern end of Cannon Street, Suffolk Street, the northern end of Farrell Street, Market Street, John Street and the southern end of Maudlin Street, and deposits up to 0.7m deep were revealed just 0.1m below the road surface on Church Street. No archaeological remains were uncovered in the trenches along New Market Street and Cross Street, which followed the line of redundant service pipes, or on Castle Street, where the road lay directly on top of subsoil.
The 60m by 1m trench along Church Street was subject to full excavation before pipe-laying works. The earliest features uncovered here were structural remains represented by a series of post-holes that have not yet been dated but were sealed by a metalled surface that is believed to be medieval. This metalled surface extended the full length of the street and was at least 5.2m wide. It probably formed the original road/lane along the line of the modern street.
A second phase of medieval activity was represented by foundation remains and a large ditch. Two curvilinear foundation trenches cut the metalled surface at the northern end of the street. These had a combined length of 4.5m, were 0.3m and 0.8m wide and up to 0.3m deep. The remains of a medieval wall built on the metalled surface were located c. 36m to the south. The wall was a drystone construction that was aligned east–west. It was 1m wide and only one course remained. This has been preserved in situ. A large north-west/south-east-running ditch cut the metalled surface at the southern end of the street. This ditch was 3.7m wide and over 0.9m deep but its base was not exposed, since it lay more than 1.3m below the road surface.
Other features on Church Street indicate that during the later phases of the medieval period the area no longer functioned as a road. These features included a series of smaller ditches, a stone drain, gullies, pits and deposits. The pits ranged from 0.4m to 2m in width and were 0.13–0.28m deep. One of the deeper (0.95m) pits on the southern end of the street may have functioned as a well and some of the others could have been used for storage purposes, but most appear to have been refuse pits. The deposits were typically silty clays with fragments of animal bone and flecks of charcoal. A large amount of worked antler, charcoal and ferrous slag recovered from the medieval features indicates that antler-working and iron production were being carried out in the area.
In the late medieval/early post-medieval period a rough stone surface was laid down and Church Street again appears to have functioned as a routeway.
A series of pit and ditch features were recorded on the eastern slope of Cannon Street, but bedrock was uncovered between 0.25m and 0.3m below the existing road at the western end of the street. In many cases only a section of these features was exposed in the trench and it was difficult to determine whether they were pits or ditches. They ranged from 0.42m to 2.5m in width and were up to 0.64m deep. Several did not produce any chronologically diagnostic finds and it is possible that at least some of these features were early medieval in date. Others were dated by the presence of medieval pottery. One of the pits had evidence for in situ burning but the others were probably used for storage and/or refuse disposal. The pits were all sealed by a post-medieval cobbled road surface.
A medieval cobbled surface was uncovered along much of Suffolk Street. This surface lay between 0.65m and 1.2m below the existing road, with the greatest depth at the southern end of the street. Associated structural remains, indicated by an east–west alignment of large limestone pieces up to 2.2m wide and an open drain, were also identified at this end of the street. All of these features have been preserved in situ below the gas pipe.
Three cut features, a sequence of deposits and the remains of metalled surfaces were recorded along the northern 20m of Farrell Street. Most of these features were medieval in date and two of the pits have been preserved in situ below the gas pipe. There was a 19th-century drainage ditch on the north-eastern side of the street.
On John Street a deposit of brown humic clay with fragments of animal bone and oyster shell was uncovered 0.95–1.1m below the road surface, overlying subsoil. A series of refuse pits were identified at the southern end of the street. There were no finds to indicate the dates of these features but some of them were sealed beneath a post-medieval cobbled surface.
A series of ditches and pits were excavated in the trench on Market Street; several of these had been truncated by an earlier gas pipe that ran along the northern end of the trench. These features ranged from 0.46m to 3.4m in width and were 0.3–0.6m deep. They were filled with silty clays that contained occupation debris and the majority were dated by finds of medieval and post-medieval pottery, although several features did not contain any ceramics and may be earlier in date. A post-medieval cesspit was excavated at the eastern end of the street.
Archaeological features were identified in the southern 23m of the trench on Maudlin Street. Most of these pits/ditches did not contain any finds and consequently their dates have not yet been determined. They were between 0.56m and 1.3m wide and 0.16–0.5m deep and functioned as refuse pits and drains. Their fills were organic clays and silts that contained fragments of animal bone, charcoal and occasional seashell. A 19th-century refuse pit was revealed further north, and to the north of this up to 0.95m of 18th/19th-century fill was recorded.
Post-medieval stone culverts were uncovered throughout the town. Most of these were cleaned out in the last 30 years and are now redundant.
Finds included a bone trial piece, bone pins, antler toggles, an antler bead, medieval stick-pins, pottery sherds and floor tiles.

Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit D, Kells Business Park, Kells, Co. Meath