2016:309 - Logan Street, Thomastown, Kilkenny

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kilkenny Site name: Logan Street, Thomastown

Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK028-040 Licence number: 15E0216 (Extension)

Author: Mary Henry

Site type: Urban

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 658518m, N 641982m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.526054, -7.137630

Monitoring was undertaken at a partially completed small housing development site at Logan Street, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.  The works were associated with a housing development on Logan Street which was partially completed in 2005/2006 but abandoned due to financial constraints. A new developer took possession of the housing scheme and completed the laying of utilities which were monitored.

There were two components to the work; the first stage within the site boundary, followed by excavating a trench along the south-eastern third of Logan Street. This trench at the end of Logan Street tied into an existing manhole.

Regarding the works within the site boundary, a trench for a storm water sewer was excavated from the front of the site at Logan Street and extended towards the rear of the site where an attenuation tank was sited. The upper 500-600mm (maximum depth of 650mm) of the site was covered with modern infill associated with construction works on the partially completed housing scheme. As part of these works a multitude of services were laid on the site and were revealed criss-crossing the monitored excavated trench.  

The trench for the storm water sewer had an average width of 500mm and did not exceed a depth of 1m. Beneath the modern infill, a mixed deposit, of post-medieval provenance at the very earliest, dominated the rear of the site, i.e. the location of the attenuation tank. Similarly, mixed deposits, and of similar provenance, occurred within the excavated trench which extended through much of the site. The two features - remains of a culvert and wall - uncovered were of relative modern date, probably associated with 18th/19th/20th-century activity on the site.   

The section of works on Logan Street extended from an existing manhole at the south-east end of the street and terminated at the entrance into the housing development site. It followed a route that was disturbed due to previous laying of services. Large sections of the eastern half of the trench were backfilled to the base or near it with Clause 804 hardcore. Where it occurred to near the base, the hardcore overlaid a layer of geo-textile membrane which sealed a mid to dark orange brown sandy gravelly clay infill with frequent disarticulated cobbles and small and medium stones. In the western part of the trench the modern hardcore, up to 500mm thick, and along some locations an underlying geo-textile membrane layer, overlaid a very mixed infill comprising sandy gravelly clay which contained disarticulated cobbles, occasional red brick and moderate amounts of stone inclusions and occasional larger stones. Traces of the naturally deposited soil were apparent near the base of the trench in places. No archaeological remains and/or features were uncovered in the trench sited along the south-east end of Logan Street.

17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary