2011:635 - STONEBRIDGE LANE, MAIN STREET SOUTH, WEXFORD, Wexford

Test excavation as part of a pre-planning assessment took place at Stonebridge Lane in March 2002 (Excavations 2002, no. 1937). A series of three test trenches were excavated by machine within areas which might be affected by construction-related groundworks. The site is located within the Zone of Urban Archaeological Potential for Wexford, immediately inside the line of the surviving town walls.

The excavation of three trenches revealed a depth of post-medieval stratigraphy exceeding 2m throughout the site. The material recovered from the trenches suggests that the site originally lay within an estuarine area and is unlikely to have been utilised as a settlement site during the earlier medieval period. Dark, waterlogged silty clays rich in organic material were uncovered between 0.8m and 1.3m below present ground level in all three trenches. This material extended beyond the reach of the mechanical excavator at a depth of 2.8m. Post-medieval reclamation layers, garden soils and modern rubble overlay the organic silts in all three trenches.

Monitoring of groundworks associated with the construction of a single retaining wall was undertaken at the site during August 2011. The foundation trench excavated at the site had an average width of 1.5m, an average depth of 0.5m and was 47.5m long.

The material removed from the trench generally consisted of loosely compacted rubble soil, which was generally a darkish brown colour or was underlain by a darkish brown clay. This deposit was the same as the post-medieval soils noted during the 2002 testing of the site.

Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology, Park, Bree, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford