2022:644 - Burgagery-Lands East, Clonmel, Tipperary

Archaeological monitoring was undertaken of groundworks associated with the construction of an All-Weather Pitch and associated site works at the Sisters of Charity Primary School, Mary Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. The archaeological monitoring works were carried out due to the proposed works being within the zone of archaeological potential for the historic town of Clonmel (TS083-019). The site is within the medieval walled town, located immediately to the north of the site was the former Church of Ireland Glebe House (Rectory) and associated grounds/gardens. On the site since the early nineteenth century, the Rectory and grounds were acquired by the Sisters of Charity in the early 1960s. To the south of the Glebe property, in an area cordoned off, was the site of the Clonmel Grammar School (‘free school’). In existence by 1685, this school building was not removed until the 1960s.
The area of the All-Weather Pitch was partially in a tan yard with the remainder a garden in the nineteenth century. Sandwiched between houses to the east and west in the nineteenth century, the area was likely occupied by gardens associated with the main burghers living on Mary Street in the medieval/late medieval period. According to Rev. Burke, a local historian, several houses had gardens to the rear and even “… few of the burghers built edifices which in size and character made pretension to feudal castles…”.
Located within a walled green field area, ground works associated with the construction of the All-Weather Pitch were, in the main, shallow. The site was topsoil stripped to a depth of between 200mm and 250mm and comprised a well-worked, very dark brown garden soil with modern inclusions, extending across the entire site. The remains of a wall were exposed during the topsoil strip, abutting the site’s south boundary wall. Post-dating the boundary wall, its function remains unknown. A wall foundation extended across the site’s entire width. Extending north-south, it had a width of 2 foot (600mm) and appears to have been the site’s former east boundary wall. This wall is not denoted on the 1840 map or the 1904-05 OS map. Located in the north part of the site the remains of a small three-sided structure was exposed. It was considered this may be the remains of a green/garden house.
A number of shallow drains were excavated; one close to the site’s south boundary wall and the other seven across its width. Extending beneath the stripped topsoil, were two earlier topsoil deposits, with the earlier one occurring c. 400mm below ground level, which was barely exposed and not removed to any extent. A soak-pit was excavated at the site’s south-east corner, exposing earlier deposits of topsoil, probably pertaining from the seventeenth/eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The natural deposition was exposed 850mm below the stripped level, the only location where it was revealed. Six small holes were excavated to accommodate poles to support netting. All were beside the high stone-built boundary walls, within mixed/disturbed, backfilled ground.

17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary