County: Tipperary Site name: Fethard
Sites and Monuments Record No.: TS070-040 Licence number: E4368
Author: Dave Pollock
Site type: Medieval town
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 620700m, N 635000m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.466048, -7.695365
Eighteen test trenches were cut through the streets of Fethard, Co. Tipperary, in March and April 2012, and fifty engineers’ slit trenches and test pits were monitored. These works were carried out as testing ahead of installing a new water main and several lengths of sewer. On Main Street above Madam’s Bridge, and near the site of the medieval Wickett Gate, in the north-east of the walled town, truncation has removed the medieval ground levels. Elsewhere early road surfaces and building remains have survived in reasonable condition. Service trenching during the 19th and 20th centuries has disturbed a good deal of potential archaeological material in the narrower streets, but in the wide Main Street a considerable amount remains.
The base of one stone building, and fragments of several timber buildings were found in the middle of Main Street, and an early street front of timber buildings was found 8m in from the present north side. There are suggestions of a similar widening of the market area at the east end.
Excavations at Madam’s Bridge, at the west end of Main Street, located a corner of the medieval gatehouse and the culvert for a millstream. Excavations in Watergate Street found the widened Town Gate, and the stump of a medieval stone bridge outside, but failed to locate remains of an early town defence north of the standing town wall.
The Town Gate on Burke Street was partly damaged by service trenches, but more of the structure should survive below the footpath and the present buildings on the south side of the street. The street appears to have migrated northwards since the medieval period, eroding the ground below the former northern street front.
There are suggestions of early suburban settlement between the Town Gate on Burke Street and the abbey, perhaps around a triangular green. A precinct wall was identified on the north side of the abbey, formerly beside Abbey Street but demolished for road widening in the late 20th century. On the west side of the abbey a robust medieval road descended towards the river, probably to a mill and grain kilns.
Further archaeological investigation is recommended ahead of pipe laying.
Knockrower Road, Stradbally, Co. Waterford.
