EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Wexford
Bride Street, Wexford, Co. Wexford
Scandinavian Urban Settlement.
Grid Ref: T04902130 (30490/12130)
SMR No: WX037-032
Excavation Licence: E000438
Excavation Duration/Year: 1980s
Site Directors: E.C. Bourke (Office of Public Works)
A number of Scandinavian houses were uncovered in the Bride Street area of Wexford. These
were predominantly composed of three-aisled, sub-rectangular, wattle-and-daub walled
houses (Fig. 302). The one exception (House 1a) was plank-built, with sharpened boards
driven into the marl. This building had an attached lean-to structure, built in the same way,
which appears to have had a wicker internal dividing wall. A bone pendant, dated c. A.D.
1050, was found in the back yard of this structure. The remainder of the Bride Street houses
consisted of a centre aisle with a central hearth, and two side aisles, each containing a
bedding area and storage areas. On average they measured 7.6m by 5.6m, and would
appear to have been demolished and replaced after 20 or 30 years. The houses all appear to
have had enclosed yards at the rear. These seem to have been used for industrial or foodrearing
purposes, for example one yard showed evidence for a small pen (possibly for pigs),
as well as leather-working debris. Finds from the houses, and their yards, included bronze
pins, bone pins, sherds of un-glazed pottery, and iron slag. A bone pendant with
Ringerike/Urness design, dated stylistically to c. A.D. 1050, was found in one of the
structures.
Fig. 302: Plan of house at Bride Street, Wexford (after Bourke 1995, 33).
References:
Bourke, E. M. 1988-9. Two early eleventh century Viking houses from Bride Street, Wexford, and
the layout of properties on the site. Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 12, 50–61.
Bourke, E. M. 1995. Life in the sunny south-east: housing and domestic economy in Viking
and medieval Wexford. Archaeology Ireland, 9(3), 33–6.
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