2017:437 - An Post Depot, Cardiff Lane, Dublin 2, Dublin

Testing undertaken in advance of development identified the reclamation phase of the area during the mid-eighteenth century. The concentration of grey estuarine silt recorded over the polder may be as a result of the breaching of Sir Rogerson’s Quay wall in 1792, an event which is recorded due to the subsequent flooding of the area which enabled the Duke of Leinster to sail over the polder and disembark at Merrion Square (De Courcy, 1996, 334).
Successive deposits of industrial and construction waste were spread over the polder reclamation layer in order to raise the overall site level. The amount of industrial waste recorded is testament to the industrial nature of the docklands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with major gasworks and chemical works to the immediate east of the site during the nineteenth
century. It is likely the industrial waste was used on the site after it has ceased to be used as a formal garden, as is evident on the 1837-43 first edition OS mapping.
A large amount of pottery sherds were unearthed during testing, both in the polder layer and above. These consisted of classic post-medieval pottery types highlighting the dating of all the recorded deposits to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Examples include sherds of transfer ware printed pottery (willow pattern, with hand painted English countryside scenes
and Chinese-style decoration) and red earthenware with a yellow glaze. Ceramic items include plates, platters, bowls and chamber pots. One basal sherd of a plate has the mark of the maker, one G. Jennings, whose South Western Pottery factory was opened in Poole, Dorset, in 1856.

Reference:
De Courcy, John W., 1996, 'The Liffey in Dublin', Gill and McMillan.

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