2013:490 - Cathedral Square/Chairman’s Arch, Waterford, Waterford

Waterford City Council proposes to develop a new building at Chairman’s Arch and refurbish Numbers 1 and 2 Cathedral Square, Waterford City. The site lies within the Zone of Archaeology for Waterford City (WA009-005) and in proximity to several Recorded Monuments. The site is in the ownership of Waterford City Council. The archaeological assessment of the site was prepared as part of a Part 8 planning application.  As part of this process test trenches and assessment of standing walls with test pits at the bases was undertaken.

Four test trenches were excavated with the aid of a mini mechanical excavator, and by hand to levels where intact archaeological strata were apparent. In addition to the test trenches, three test pits were excavated at the foundations of existing stone and brick walls to assess the nature and possible date of these walls.

Each test trench revealed a different ground make-up indicating the variable nature of the archaeological material and a variety of subsurface environments/survivals. In all cases the trenches revealed subsurface disturbance and/or post-18^th-century to modern material to a depth of 0.6m or more below the surface. One contained archaeological material close to the surface, i.e. a well-preserved 17^th-century pit-fill at 0.6m, while another revealed burnt deposits of unknown date at a depth of 1.1m, there was also some evidence of basement/disturbance at the northern end of this trench but the nature of this was unclear.

Trench 1 contained material of potentially the greatest significance. Evidence of what may be a ditch occurred below depths of 1.8m, however the precise nature of the feature is uncertain. This was the only trench excavated to these levels as in Trenches 2 and 4 the presence of archaeological material necessitated suspending further excavation and Trench 3 contained demonstrably modern fill to a depth of 1.5m so there was no justification to continue excavation below this depth.

There was no evidence for extensive well-preserved organic material of the type found in Arundel Square (western end of Peter Street) within the tested levels. The creation of a new building of the type proposed which will be based on a piled foundation is considered unlikely to significantly compromise the archaeological resource of the site.

The entire site was excavated to a depth of c. 1.5m in January 2014.

It was necessary to reconstruct the rear wall of a building (No. 4 Cathedral Square) as it was deemed a risk to construction work. The removal of a bulging element of the wall was undertaken as part of the proposal and this work took place in November 2013. Removal of the render revealed a timber-framed structure at first floor level. The timbers were surveyed in situ and then removed along with the brick infill. In total, fourteen timbers were removed and retained for conservation (it is proposed to reconstruct the wall when conservation is completed). Two timbers dated by dendrochronology revealing a felling date of spring AD1466 and another timber from a rafter in the house was dated to after AD1547. There was no evidence for reuse or secondary working on the two timbers dated to 1466, but other timbers from the structure did display evidence for reuse; these were however un-dateable by dendrochronology. If the dateable timbers are primary to the construction, a late 15^th-century date for at least some of the fabric of the house cannot be ruled out, and the house was almost certainly built between the late 15^th and mid 16^th century.

6 Clarence Court, St. Luke’s, Cork.