Dublin City Archaeological Archive/ 119-121 Thomas Street (96E0280) Collection

Context

Creator(s): Margaret Gowen and Company Limited

• Administrative History ↴

  Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin, is a professional archaeological company founded in the early 1980s.The company has carried out a number of archaeological excavations and development-led investigations arising from the requirements of development control and planning process, in line with legal provisions of the Planning and Development Acts (2000) and the National Monuments Acts (1930-2004) and Amendments Acts. The 119-121 Thomas Street Collection is one of many site archives that has been generated through this development-led excavation. The archaeological excavation on this site took place between November and December 1996 as part of the site clearance works. The work onsite resulted from an initial assessment carried out by Margaret Gowen (Excavations 1995,22-3) and three phases of archaeological activity were recorded, medieval, early post-medieval and late post-medieval. In the medieval phase, a large number of medieval pits were cut into the natural gravel deposits across the site. The pits were sealed by a spread of medieval clay, with which areas of burning were associated. These features are likely to relate to 'industrial activity' outside the town wall, tentatively dated to the thirteenth/fourteenth century. The finds included a substantial quantity of medieval pottery, a ring-brooch, a belt buckle and a decorated leather scabbard. In the early post-medieval phase, a number of post medieval features were recorded overlying the cut into the medieval features on the site. These included two wells, pits and a deposit of clay. The activity is related to domestic dwellings fronting onto Thomas Street, which was well developed by the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The site was substantially altered in the nineteenth century by the construction of the Blanchardstown Mills and by the alteration and rebuilding of houses and shops fronting onto Thomas Street. This involved a reduction in ground level and the removal of archaeological deposits to varying degrees across the site.

• Archival History ↴

  Transferred by Margaret Gowen and Company Ltd. to Dublin City Archives, 27 March 2009

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation