County: Wexford Site name: No. 7 Westgate, Wexford
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 18E0644 ext
Author: Seán Shanahan, Maja Czechak & Fiona Reilly; Shanarc Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Urban, medieval & post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 704484m, N 622254m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.341924, -6.466610
No. 7 Westgate is situated in the zone of archaeological potential of the historic town at Wexford. The property is located in immediate proximity to the medieval town wall (WX037-032002), including two of the defence's fortified gates, and to the Selskar Abbey complex (WX037-032009). Historically, the land at No. 7 Westgate likely formed part of the precinct of Selskar Abbey.
Following testing (excavations.ie 2018:217), archaeological excavation was carried out at the site. The excavation uncovered a series of features, some of which (pit C.12 and culvert C.50, linear C.14 and pit C.05), may potentially have medieval origins, but the remainder of which are primarily associated with post-medieval garden activity, water supply and drainage (drains and culverts).
A large quantity of artefacts, including flint nodules and debitage, sherds of medieval and post-medieval pottery, glass, iron rivets, nails and building materials were recovered. Environmental material included whole cereal grains and charcoal. Many of the artefacts appear to have been imported onto the site in fill taken from elsewhere and deposited across No. 7 Westgate. This made it difficult to accurately phase and date individual features.
The animal bones collected during the excavation comprise a usual domestic urban assemblage and represent the food waste of the residents of the site in the 18th and 19th centuries as many of the fragments exhibit modern sawn butchery marks.
32 fragments of clay-pipe recovered during excavation, 24 of these were dated to the 17th century with the remainder being 18th-20th century in date.
Clay building materials recovered during excavation comprised a medieval ridge tile likely 13th century in date, as well as kiln waste and post-medieval ridge tiles, pantiles and wall tiles.
The glass assemblage represents domestic activity dating from the mid-18th to the 20th century. A wine bottle neck was closely dated to 1750-70 which is significantly earlier than the rest of the glass finds which have been broadly dated to the late 19th/20th century.
An assemblage of 82 lithics comprised 80 flaked stone tools – cores, flakes, and blades – formed on flint, and 2 ground stone tools formed on mudstone and limestone. The majority of the flaked stone tools would appear to represent a Neolithic to Chalcolithic assemblage, while the ground stone tools may be prehistoric or historic in date.
A total of 1,349 sherds of pottery were recovered. Following identification and some reassembly within and between contexts, this was reduced to 1,286 sherds of which 1,124 (87.40%) are medieval, ranging in date from the 11th-14th centuries. The remainder of the pottery assemblage was dated from the 17th to early 20th century.
There were 74 artefacts of metal from the excavations at Westgate: one silver coin, four copper alloy and the remainder are iron. The objects range in date from late-13th/early-14th coin, to more recent structural fittings. The propensity of rivets, or clench bolts, may indicate the debris of a large boat or wooden structure in the area.
Unit 39A, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
