Urban Tales 2006 RTE interview in a curragh on the River Lee with Bob Vance
THE QUEEN’S CASTLE, HOPEWELL CASTLE, PARADISE CASTLE, NORTH GATE BRIDGE, WOODEN BOARDWALKS,
MEDIEVAL CITY WALLS, MEDIEVAL WOODEN QUAY, MASONRY QUAY WALLS, WOODEN STRUCTURES,
DRAINAGE, CULVERTS, BRIDGES, TANNING PITS, MILLS, STONE HOUSES, MEDIEVAL BARREL, STREET PAVING
KYLE STREET, PATRICK STREET, LIBERTY STREET, NORTH MAIN STREET, TUCKEY STREET, NORTH MAIN STREET SOUTH MAIN STREET, ADELAIDE STREET, PAUL STREET,
LANEWAYS.
19th century brick cellar, adjacent to the Queen’s Castle
A SMALL MEDEIVAL CULVERT/FRENCH DRAIN IN NORTH MAIN STREET.
EXCAVATING THE CULVERT ON DAUNT SQUARE
DURING THE EXCAVATIONS MUCH WOOD USED IN QUAYS, BOARD WALKS, STRUCTURES, WAS EXPOSED AND DRAWN,
SUBSEQUENTLY REMOVED, A FEW DATED, BUT MOST STORED IN CONTAINERS FOR THEIR CONSERVATION IN CORK CITY
COUNCIL. WHEN SOUGHT BY THE AUTHOR, THEY HAD DISAPPEARED WITHOUT FURTHER EXAMINATION. PHOTOGRAPHS
OF THESE WILL BE POSTED HERE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
MEDIEVAL SURGERY IN A MAN HOSPITALISED IN A CORK CITY INFIRMERY OF A PRIORY
THE EXCAVATION OF QUEEN’S CASTLE AND CORK CITY WALLS , WITH THE WINDOWS FROM THE BUILDINGS REFLECTING ON THE STREET SURFACE OF CASTLE STREE DURING THE CORK MAIN DRAINAGE SCHEME
CONSERVATION OF THE CASTLE AND CITY WALLS, BY COVERING IT IN
SANDBAGS, UNDER THE SURFACE AT CASTLE STREET
THE SEWER PIPES AND OTHER SERVICES, WHICH CUT THROUGH THE MEDIEVAL QUEEN’S CASTLE,
DURING THE PROBABLY DURING THE SEWERAGE SCHEME OF THE 1940’S.
MEDIEVAL LIFE IN CORK CITY, evident in a mural on Grattan Street in 1996
DAUNT SQUARE CULVERT, GOING UNDER THE BUILDINGS TO PARADISE PLACE.
DURING THE EXCAVATION LOCALS HAD TOLD US THAT THEY COULD TAKE A WALK UNDER THE STREET.
EXCAVATING HUMAN SKELETONS
CULVERT AT SOUTH MAIN STREET
MEDIEVAL AND POST-MEDIEVAL PHASES AT PARADISE CASTLE: 17TH CENTURY STREET PAVING AND TWO PHASES OF THE CASTLE
Part of Queen’s Castle uncovered at junction of Cornmarket Street & Castle Street, Cork City
http://www.excavations.ie
1996:045. North Main Street/Castle Street, Cork
Urban medieval and post-medieval
1997:037. NORTH MAIN STREET/CASTLE STREET/ ADELAIDE STREET/LIBERTY STREET/DAUNT SQUARE/PARADISE PLACE, CORK
Urban medieval and post-medieval
1997:054. DOLPHIN SQUARE, YOUGHAL
Urban
1998:062. ADELAIDE STREET/KYLE STREET/LIBERTY STREET/NORTH MAIN STREET/PAUL STREET/SOUTH MAIN STREET, CORK
Urban medieval/post-medieval
1998:065. BLACKPOOL, CORK
Industrial
1999:090. BLACKPOOL BYPASS, CORK
Urban industrial
1999:092. CHRISTCHURCH LANE/HANOVER STREET/KIFT’S LANE/LITTLE CROSS STREET/ST AUGUSTINE STREET/ST PATRICK’S STREET/EMMET PLACE/TUCKEY STREET, CORK
Urban medieval and post-medieval
1999:098. SAINT MARY’S OF THE ISLE, CORK
Urban Medieval/industrial
| Cork 1996:045 North Main Street/Castle Street, Cork Urban medieval and post-medieval W670720 96E157 Cork Corporation and its Historic Centre Action Plan provided funding to redevelop the drainage system in North Main Street, Castle Street, Kyle Street and Adelaide Street during May to October 1996. The trenches proposed for the new sewerage scheme and for other services were monitored to record archaeological stratigraphy.In Castle Street part of the remains of the medieval tower of the Queen’s Castle was found. This was at the east of the street, at the southern part of the east entrance to the medieval walled port. Parts of the medieval defence walls were evident immediately to the north of the castle. Portions of the medieval quay wall were also uncovered in this street; these represent the wall at the north of the channel which runs under Castle Street and which divided the North Island and the South Island of Cork City. The walls of eighteenth/nineteenth-century buildings, including those of two cellars, were also uncovered.The northern part of North Main Street from the junction with Kyle Street was excavated. The stratigraphy throughout this portion of the street was similar: several strata of medieval road-metalling and street surfaces, sometimes associated with organic debris. These layers were dated to the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries by the ceramic finds, which included Redcliffe ware, Saintonge and Cork local wares. Other finds included leather and faunal remains. Remains of the medieval drainage system were also seen under some of the medieval street surfaces.Near the junction of both Kyle Street and Adelaide Street with North Main Street a single wall was uncovered. Each wall ran in a north/south direction. These walls may be the remains of buildings which fronted these streets prior to the street-widening scheme in the nineteenth century. Catryn Power, for Cork Corporation. Cork 1997:037 NORTH MAIN STREET/CASTLE STREET/ ADELAIDE STREET/LIBERTY STREET/DAUNT SQUARE/PARADISE PLACE, CORK Urban medieval and post-medieval W670720 96E157 Excavation for the Cork Main Drainage Scheme resumed in January 1997 and continued until November 1997. The scheme will recommence in February 1998. Trenches were excavated for sewage pipes and other services within the archaeological zone of the medieval city.Two portions of the circular tower of the medieval Queen’s Castle were discovered in 1996 (Excavations 1996, 12) and in 1997 a third portion was uncovered. The medieval quay wall was seen in three locations at the southern end of North Main Street for a total length of c. 12m. A corner of a limestone structure dating to the medieval period was located on Paradise Place; its exposed length measured 1.1m from north to south and its height was exposed for 0.5m. It is in the vicinity of the site of the medieval Paradise Castle.In North Main Street parts of a possible raft foundation for a wooden road were excavated which were dendrochronologically dated to the 12th century. These timbers may have originated from structures in the South Island of the city, where earlier settlement took place, or they may represent a 12th-century suburb on the North Island. Alongside this medieval road lay probable fronts of timber houses which were also dated to the 12th century.Part of the west wall of a tower-house fronting the old street was found at the southern end of North Main Street. It was tentatively dated to the 15th/16th century. It was exposed for a length of 4.5m from north to south and its height survived for 1.5m. This limestone wall has a footing and also overlies an earlier wall constructed of sandstone and limestone; the latter was exposed for a length of 9m from north to south and for a height of 1.36m. The wall of the tower-house was associated with a limestone-paved road surface, a cambered kerb used as a drain, and a footpath. Immediately to the north of these remains lay two other lengths of contemporary stone walls of buildings fronting the street for a distance of 4.5m from north to south; these had associated stone drains. Further south of the tower-house another section of street frontage, built of stone, measured 0.85m in length from north to south, 0.85m in width and 1.3m in height.A double-arched culvert, 10m in width, dating from the 18th/19th century was recorded in Liberty Street; it lay in an east-west direction extending from Liberty Street under the buildings on Paradise Place to Daunt Square. This is the line of the original channel which divided the north and south islands of the city in medieval times. Catryn Power, for Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork. Cork 1998:062 ADELAIDE STREET/KYLE STREET/LIBERTY STREET/NORTH MAIN STREET/PAUL STREET/SOUTH MAIN STREET, CORK Urban medieval/post-medieval W670720 96E0157 Excavation for the Cork Main Drainage Scheme took place within the archaeological zone of the medieval city from February until October 1998.The medieval city walls were observed in three streets. Two portions were evident at the western end ofAdelaide Street, one at the eastern end of Kyle Street and one at North Main Street. At North Main Street (the North Gate) a second wall, 4m thick and battered, was built against its south face. These walls were associated with horizontal timber beams and braces dating to the medieval period. Street metalling extended south from the city wall.A 17th-century wooden barrel used as a cistern was recorded on Adelaide Street. It was stave built and bound by wooden hoops.Medieval paving made of flat green sandstone and limestone was exposed for a length of 3.92m on Kyle Street. This was suggestive of the presence of a house. Six fragments of moulded Dundry stone, dating to the 13th/14th centuries, were found on Kyle Street. These originally came from at least one arch, possibly a church window. |
Two substantial structural walls on Liberty Street are probably medieval; one was 12m long and 1m wide, while the
second had a footing. Lanes and houses were excavated on Liberty Street; these are depicted on John Rocque’s map of
1773. They were associated with North Devon Sgraffito wares, as well as a Cromwellian penny token from Clonmel.
Excavations on Paul Street exposed walls of the original 18th-century buildings fronting the street.
A length of 3.26m of medieval street surface, laid on a foundation of small stones, was exposed on South Main Street.
It ran in a north-south direction and was composed of flat red sandstone and limestone. Also on South Main Street
two medieval timber structures were exposed. One of these is probably part of a fence or house. It consists of a row
of wattling and a parallel row of upright timber planks associated with organic packing. The second structure
consists of horizontal timbers associated with a row of posts. This may be the base of a boardwalk that is contiguous
with an existing alleyway. An 18th/19th-century culvert built of red sandstone, running north-south, was recorded
for the full length of trenching on South Main Street; 1.45m of its width was evident, while its height was recorded for
2.3m.
Catryn Power, for Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork.
Cork 1998:065
BLACKPOOL, CORK
Industrial
W1675007300
97E0457
Phase III of this road project involved the construction of a culvert from the Glen Road to Brewery Corner. The route of the culvert passes through sites dating to the 18th/19th centuries, such as Green’s Distillery, a tannery at Corkeran’s Quay, a mill at Assumption Road, Hewitt’s Watercourse Distillery (now an industrial estate), Dunn’s Tannery and Water’s Mill. Before construction a complete architectural and industrial archaeological survey of sites on the route of the bypass was carried out.
Construction work uncovered the remains of the 18th-century corn- and flour-mill at Assumption Road and a row of 19th-century houses demolished in this century at Farrancleary Place. Following demolition of buildings associated with the distillery, the foundations of a steam mill and the structure of a chimney were recorded.
A group of five wooden tanning pits of plank-and-post construction was uncovered and excavated. The pits measured c. 1m2, and the surviving depth was 0.4m-0.6m. The pits were filled with clay, stones, grit, red brick and red earthenware. At the base of one pit was a layer of oily debris containing animal hairs, scraps of leather and some scraps of metal. A Georgian halfpenny coin, dating from between 1769 and 1805, was found in the silty clay in which the pits were set.
A layer of residue from the tanning process was recorded at the site of Dunn’s Tannery. This contained compacted oak chips and bark and possibly minerals that were used in the tanning process.
The sill-beam and other timbers of a sluice-gate were found in situ at the outlet of a culverted channel on the north side of the Back Watercourse below Hewitt’s Watercourse Distillery. Tenoned upright and horizontal timbers were fixed into, or laid on top of, the beam. A row of holes bored into the horizontal timbers may indicate the presence of a grating. This site is probably of late 18th-/early 19th-century date.
Catryn Power, Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork.
Cork 1999:090
BLACKPOOL BYPASS, CORK
Urban industrial
16700 07300
97E0457
Archaeological monitoring of the Blackpool Bypass was completed in March 1999. In early 1999 the foundations of a substantial limestone, sandstone and red brick building with an industrial stack were recorded in the former Hewitt’s Watercourse Distillery. The building was marked as ‘steam mills’ on the Ordnance Survey 5-inch map of 1869; however, it was identified as ‘the entrance to a multi-storey grain store and kiln drying complex’ in the industrial archaeology survey carried out as part of this development. On the evidence of the roof construction of a surviving part of the building, it was dated to the late 18th century.
The construction features of the main stack at Hewitt’s Distillery (a landmark in the Blackpool Valley) were recorded and found to be comparable to other industrial stacks in the British Isles. The base of the stack measured 5.5m north-south by 5.2m and was built in the first part of the 19th century, while the upper levels were built in the 1870s. The stack was 28.9m high. The lower (and earlier) levels of the outer shell were of mortar-bonded, coursed red sandstone rubble, and the upper levels were constructed of brick. The outer shell was strengthened by the insertion of bars of cast iron within the masonry. The inside of the stack was lined with a layer of large Staffordshire firebricks. The average size of the firebricks was 0.46m by 0.28m by 0.14m. The firebricks in turn enclosed an unmortared, central, circular flue of wedge-shaped yellow bricks laid on their beds. The manufacturer of these bricks was J. & M. Craig, Kilmarnock. ‘The original purpose of the stack was to create a draught for the boiler furnaces and to disperse the fumes created by this process. At the lower levels of the stack two flues were recorded.
Samples from two of the tanning pits excavated in 1998 were analysed by Meriel McClatchie (Archaeological Services Unit, UCC) for archaeobotanical remains. Both samples contained plant material preserved as a result of waterlogging. A range of plant species was present in the samples, providing evidence for foodstuffs and the surrounding environment. The samples also contained a wide range of other material, including coprolites, textile fragments, animal hair, mosses, insect remains and charred and waterlogged wood fragments. The plant material in the samples probably reflects the background environment around the pits. The weed seeds present are commonly found in medieval assemblages from Dublin and Waterford from contexts associated with disturbed and waste ground. The samples did not contain plant material, such as bark, that can be directly associated with the tanning process, but leather fragments and animal hair were recovered.
Catryn Power, for Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork.
Cork 1999:092
CHRISTCHURCH LANE/HANOVER STREET/KIFT’S LANE/LITTLE CROSS STREET/ST AUGUSTINE STREET/ST PATRICK’S STREET/EMMET PLACE/TUCKEY STREET, CORK
Urban medieval and post-medieval
W670720
96E0157
Archaeological monitoring of the Cork Main Drainage Scheme has been ongoing since May 1996. The streets monitored in 1999 that are within the medieval core of the city were St Augustine Street, Christchurch Lane, Hanover Street, Kift’s Lane, Little Cross Street and Tuckey Street. Also monitored were Emmet Place and St Patrick’s Street, which were developed when Cork expanded beyond the confines of the city wall from the 17th century onward. The trenches for the modern services were on average 1-1.5m wide, with a maximum depth of 2.3m.Christchurch Lane
A limestone wall interpreted as part of Hopewell Castle (a tower on the medieval city wall) was discovered in Christchurch Lane. The line of this wall was curved. It was exposed for a length of 4.35m and a height of 1m. The wall corresponds with the ‘site of Hopewell Castle’ as marked on Ordnance Survey maps. Sherds of imported Minety-type and Ham Green B ware, as well as Cork-type ware from a sealed layer abutting the north face of this wall, substantiate a medieval date for its construction.Hanover Street
Part of the western circuit of the medieval city wall was uncovered in Hanover Street. This limestone wall was orientated in a north-west/south-east direction and was exposed for a maximum length of 1.1m at its east (inner) face. The wall was 2.3m wide and was cut by a drain that was probably contemporary. The east face of the wall was constructed of at least eight courses of regular limestones and was 0.8m high. A 17th/18th-century drain obscured the west face of the wall.Organic medieval layers in Hanover Street contained worked leather, Ham Green B ware and Saintonge green-glazed ware. These deposits occurred directly inside the city wall and also at the east end of the street, where they were associated with the scant remains of masonry and wooden structures. The deposits at the east end of the street were at levels that may correspond with excavations carried out by Rose Cleary in 1996 (Excavations 1996, 11, 96E0128) on the southern side of the street, near the junction with South Main Street.A post-medieval wooden barrel was found cut into a medieval organic deposit directly inside the city wall. The barrel, which may have been used as a cistern and ultimately as a refuse pit, contained organic material including pieces of wood, lumps of mortar and brick, and a sherd of North Devon gravel-tempered ware. The bottom of the barrel was lined with powdered limestone/calcite. Plant fragments in the barrel have been identified as oat grains, which suggests that it had been used to carry cereal before it became a cistern.Kift’s Lane
A 19th-century brick culvert was recorded in the western part of this lane.Little Cross Street
A medieval wall, orientated north-south, was exposed at the junction of Little Cross Street and Washington Street. The wall had a base batter, and its construction consisted of a face of coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with a clay-bonded rubble core. The minimum thickness of the wall was 0.5m, and it survived to a minimum height of 1.2m. The wall may have been part of a building, such as a house, on this street.St Augustine Street
A portion of the medieval city wall, 1.13m long, was exposed in St Augustine Street. It follows the line of the city wall excavated in 1992 in Nos 81-83 Grand Parade. The wall uncovered in this season’s excavation was on a north-south axis and was constructed of roughly squared limestones. It was 2.18m wide, and the exposed east face was 1.8m high. The wall had a rubble core of which the exposed upper surface was bonded with a coarse mortar. There was no evidence of bonding material on the east face. The west face of the wall was not exposed.St Patrick’s Street and Emmet Place
Archaeological stratigraphy in St Patrick’s Street and Emmet Place consisted of layers of 18th- and 19th-century rubble that were used to reclaim the waterways that once ran along the course of these streets. Contemporary culverts were also recorded.Tuckey Street
Vestiges of at least one or two medieval structures were uncovered in Tuckey Street. These remains included at least one possible sill-beam house (represented by three beams) associated with deposits of organic refuse containing wood, shells, worked leather and pottery. Silts from episodes of flooding from the River Lee were distributed between the organic layers. A row of collapsed wattling was associated with a line of posts and stakes at the same level as the sill-beam house. To the north of this wattling were remnants of a floor surface consisting of fine gravel with patches of pinkish-grey clay associated with silty, organic material.A second line of posts was also uncovered within the medieval layers. These posts were in two parallel lines running for over 4m and ranged from 0.03m to 0.09m in diameter; their length was not fully exposed. They were part of a house wall or a fence and were associated with collapsed wattling. All of these features are probably related and may represent the remains of at least one wooden house and associated fencing. Similar findings were made at nearby Christchurch, where excavations were carried out in the 1970s.These wooden remains were all within organic layers and were probably contemporary, or were constructed within a short time frame. The pottery accompanying these deposits included Ham Green A and B, Redcliffe, Minety and Saintonge wares dating from the 12th-14th centuries. The medieval archaeology was present in the eastern part of Tuckey Street near the junction with the medieval main street.A medieval roadway was seen above some organic levels in Tuckey Street. This road consisted of a layer of sandstone paving stones and an underlying foundation layer of stone rubble. This stone surface extended for 25m. The existence of the road indicated that the trenches for the services followed the east-west line of a medieval lane.The city wall did not survive in the trenches excavated in Tuckey Street because the building of culverts in the 18th and 19th centuries had destroyed it.A stone-lined pit dating to the post-medieval period contained gravel, red brick, mortar, animal bones, clay, silt, ash, charcoal and large amounts of post-medieval pottery, including an almost complete North Devon gravel-tempered ware pitcher. This stone-lined pit may have been used as a rubbish dump for a house on Tuckey Street. Other post-medieval features included a street surface (directly above the medieval road) and a wall of a dwelling with a wooden pile foundation.
Catryn Power, Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork
Cork 1999:098
SAINT MARY’S OF THE ISLE, CORK
Urban medieval/industrial
167000 071500
99E0353
Excavation of trenches for the laying of sewer pipes for the Cork Main Drainage Scheme was monitored by archaeologists from Cork Corporation. The work took place in the grounds of the Mercy convent of Saint Mary’s of the Isle. The site is adjacent to a Dominican priory excavated in 1993.
Part of a garden wall, which was 1m high, was excavated; it was discovered that its original purpose was as an 18th/19th-century quay wall on the south bank of a tributary of the River Lee. It was excavated to a height of 3m.
Eighteen walls and associated floorings, culverts and a drystone well were evident in the eastern part of the grounds. These were the remains of the 19th-century buildings of St Anne’s Adoption Society, which had been demolished during the 1970s. This orphanage was founded in 1853. Some of the walls uncovered abutted the quay wall, and these represent the washrooms of the orphanage, while the walls excavated immediately to the south-west are the remains of the dormitories and refectory.
To the south-west of these 19th-century buildings part of a medieval stone structure was discovered. Three substantial walls form the western portion of a room that had a mortared floor; its remaining internal dimensions were 1.15m from east to west and 2.3m from north to south. These walls were built on wooden foundation piles. One of these walls extended from the building for a further 9.47m to the west and may be part of a mill-race that carried water to or from a waterwheel via this channel. Maps dating to the medieval period depict a mill in this vicinity.
Catryn Power, Cork Corporation, City Hall, Cork.
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