2012:631 - Maiden Gate, Fairgreen, New Ross, Wexford

New Ross Town Council, in conjunction with the Heritage Council, commissioned the repair of the extant remains of Maiden Gate, also known as Fair Gate and Bishop’s Gate (part of the original circuit defences of the medieval town). Alastair Coey Conservation Architects were appointed to execute the works and the writer to monitor the project. The project commenced on 15 October and was concluded by 30 November 2012. The site represents ‘the largest single remains and the only surviving evidence of a gate’. The works were situated where Bullawn meets Fairgreen.

The project involved monitoring all stages of the restoration works which entailed: injection of poison into vegetation to travel into and kill roots in the structure; hand removal of vegetation; hand raking out of modern cement material and degraded lime mortar; hand raking of surface joints; where appropriate, infill of wall voids with geologically compatible locally sourced stone (rubble shale) in keeping with original wall fabric; infill of wall voids and surface joints with compatible lime mortar grouting (3.5 NHL lime mortar); capping of existing top of structure to ensure protection from the elements and prevent water ingress into the wall fabric; digital survey of wall once vegetation has been removed; installation of an acro-drain to divert water on hard surface of public (pedestrian) area adjacent to the gate away from the structure and into existing sub-surface drainage system. In addition, structural degradation of the upper portion of a section of more recent wall, which was appended to the overall structure, was removed by hand (along with its reinforced steel joist buttressing element). The bottommost 1m of the wall abutting the public road was grouted with a coarser 5 NHL lime mortar, in order to withstand the effects of road salting during the winter periods.

Initial assessment of the wall showed that it had significant vegetative growth on all façades. This had obscured potions of the wall fabric from assessment of its condition. It was however apparent from visible faces that degradation had occurred, with pockets of stone absent from both faces. The vegetation mainly consisted of weeds and ivy. The most invasive and damaging to the wall fabric were largely confined to the upper reaches of the extant wall and tower. Later 20^th-century repairs had been made on both faces with sections of sand cement-bonded stone set to infill the wall and to a small extent to create a flush façade. Sand cement cladding was also set on the wall’s north face at ground level. It was evident that the wall had received a significant amount of attention, in the form of repairs and appendages, from its 13^th-century construction, through to the 20^th century. The latter appears to have been well intentioned, but these were damaging restorations to the long-term sustainability of the wall.

In general, the façades are composed of small angular shale generally set in a horizontal pattern. Finely dressed and sculpted blue-grey sandstone was used to construct quoins, and architectural features. Some large quartz and granites were used for later reconstructions dating to 19^th-century construction of adjacent dwellings. One terminal to the wall – a curved aspect – appears to be a 15^th-century installation of a tower, which accords with records of the gate having twin towers. Removal of lower courses of the portcullis groove and replacement with stone material similar to the curved aspects accords with this. This is reinforced by the southward butt of wall projecting at c. 2m above ground that aligns with the external quoin aspect of the portcullis groove.

Part of the repair programme consisted of expeditious hand removal of the upper course of granite wall infill of the south-facing element at western end. This was undertaken to determine whether this was a later infill of a void or if it formed part of the overall fabric of the wall. In the event, the latter was found to be the case and as such is part of the late 19^th-century gable building inserted into the fabric of the gate. The stone was then reset back in situ. Various architectural fragments from the original structure were found resting within the walls. Their locations were recorded in detail.

The project also entailed installation of an acro-drain to divert surface water away from the wall and into a soak-away, from which the creation of new outflow and connection to the old existing outflow were made. The soak-away measured 1.2m by 1.2m and was machine excavated to a depth of 1.4m. The general stratigraphy was found to be a 0.2m concrete layer over 0.4-0.5m 19^th-century demolition debris (including red brick and wood fragments, and some glass ware). Beneath this was naturally occurring yellow sandy silt with a high concentration of shale. The shale became larger at basal levels. Excavation for the acro-drains was 0.4m wide and up to 0.4m in depth. Excavation for the outflows reached up to 1.1m in depth. The water-catching element was set 1m from the wall. The stratigraphy remained consistent throughout and nothing of an historical or archaeological nature was encountered.

Dunburbeg, Clonmel Road, Co. Tipperary