2019:410 - Meetinghouse Street, Townparks, Ballymoney, Antrim

The proposed development on lands incorporating Nos 18-24 and No 34 Meeting House Street, Ballymoney, consists of the construction of a discount foodstore, provision of car parking, landscaping and associated site works.
Due to the proximity of the scheduled area associated with the medieval and later church, tower and graveyard: old church tower, Church of Balibony (ANT017:003) and the area of archaeological potential associated with the settlement of Ballymoney (ANT017:060), DfC:HED requested an archaeological impacts assessment to be undertaken, which included test trenching.
Testing took place on 24 October 2019. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in any of the test trenches opened.
The results confirm the cartographic evidence which points to the area being largely ‘green-field’ until the early part of the 20th century. The only feature of note related to the underlying subsoil, which according to the Geological Survey consists of morainic deposits of silts, sands, gravels and boulders. The testing suggested that the southern half of the site was largely drier, consisting of stiff yellow brown loam clays, while the northern half was wetter, consisting of dark grey stiff silty loam clays/marls, with water ingress in places.

AHC Ltd 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan Co Down BT31 9LF