County: Wexford Site name: School Street & St Peter's Square, Wexford
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX037-032---- Licence number: C001077; E005372
Author: Michael Greiner & Seán Shanahan; Shanarc Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 704755m, N 621626m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.336230, -6.462830
Archaeological monitoring took place of groundworks associated with the upgrading of water mains connections for multiple properties on School Street and St Peter’s Square, Wexford.
All associated monitored works were located within the Zone of Notification for the historic town of Wexford (WX037-032----). School Street & St Peter’s Square, are located in the townland of Townparks (Part of St Peter’s) and are sited just outside Wexford’s historic city walls (WX037-032002-) a National Monument; the excavation areas were located within approximately 30m of the defences.
Works commenced at the north, opposite the entrance to the Presentation Secondary School on School Street and went as far south as St. Peter’s Square. Trenches measuring between 0.6-1m in width, and of varying lengths, were excavated perpendicular to the houses. Modern service pipes and cables were exposed running parallel to the road.
Trenches running from the houses on the eastern side of the street displayed identical stratigraphy. Excavated materials below the existing concrete footpath comprised what appeared to be garden soil, comprising dark brown silty clay with frequent small, angular stones, occasional red brick and occasional bedrock. This was exposed to a depth of 0.5m. Below the street surface was a stony infill with occasional red brick inclusions. A continuous concrete-clad pipe and sand- and gravel-filled trenches containing modern services ran north-south. This material was exposed to a maximum depth of 1.2m. In the southernmost trenches, a pale to mid-yellow stony clay was exposed at the base of the trench. This had the appearance of undisturbed natural subsoil.
The trenches running from the houses on the western side of the street met modern sand-filled service trenches directly under the existing footpath.
No archaeological finds, features or deposits were identified during the monitored water mains excavations.
Unit 39a, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
