.....my
archaeological discoveries from the garden. Found while digging and
doing construction work over the last few decades. Probably nineteenth
century stuff. My theory is that rubble from the demolition of the
Carlow Stables was spread out to level the ground during construction of
the Nicholastown housing estate and that's where some of these
fragments may have came from. During the era when a Bianconi coach
service ran from Dublin to Cork, via Clonmel, horses were replaced at
intervals along the way. The Carlow Stables in Kilcullen was one of the
relay sites. The building was located just before the first turn into
the estate, heading south. Some of the fragments I found were rough
pottery with glaze, so these could be pre-nineteenth century and not
manufactured in moulds or by machine. One piece has shallow grooves,
possibly made by finger marks when the pottery was turned on a wheel.
The top of a flagon came from outside the wall of my house, dug up when
the council was fixing a broken water main almost 20 years ago. It's
embossed with the text "Price Bristol". That grass bank outside the
house probably contains a treasure trove of items, lost and discarded
over the centuries since the road and the trail which probably preceded
it has been in existence. I also found a piece of red brick, three feet
under the ground, when I was digging a soakaway in the front lawn, but
there were no houses in the area before the estate was built. The
triangular tile-like objects were found when I was digging the
foundations for my gate piers a few years ago. Not sure what they are.
