AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

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screen) that demarcated the chancel of the church from the nave. This wall footing sealed
four burials and a bone scatter. A quern stone was found under the supporting wall and a
polished thirteenth century bone pin shaft was found in association with the rood screen wall
foundation.
Excavations within the choir area of the cathedral uncovered the remains of a cross wall
which probably retained a ‘dais’ (raised platform) at the altar end of this area. The ‘dais’
sealed twenty three burials – two of which contained ear-muff stones, indicative of a
medieval date. Also excavated at the cross-wall in the choir under the lancets in the south
wall was the foundation spread for choir stalls. A silver farthing of Edward I found under
these stones may indicate that the cathedral was constructed in this period during the
episcopacy of Nicholas from A.D. 1288-1336. A section of the south wall of the south aisle of
the cathedral was uncovered extending from the west wall of the south transept for a length
of 3.80m. It was a substantial structure with a batter on the outer face and contained four
irregular stone courses surviving to a maximum height of 1.40m above the foundations.
The foundations of a fourteenth century vestry (sacristy) were uncovered with a fifteenth
century phase of construction superimposed almost directly over the earlier structure. The
construction of the vestry involved the removal of some earlier burials which were dumped
into a large charnel pit underneath its west end. To the North and northeast of the vestry
three post-holes were revealed - one cut by a pit that pre-dated the vestry- and may form
part of structure. To the west of this a circular stone spread within a shallow pit may be the
remains of a small building (Moore 1992). Both are probably medieval in date. Also built in
the fifteenth century was the original south transept, linked to the cathedral by a pair of
pointed arches. Here, excavations uncovered the lower courses of a wall representing the
vestiges of the original fifteenth century wall of the south transept. Other fifteenth century
additions included the battlements with window loops and lookout places along the
cathedral’s walls which served to create the impression of a strongly fortified building.
The south transept of the cathedral was extended through an existing cemetery and
converted into a Protestant church in A.D. 1671. Much of the material used in the
construction of these later phases came from existing features including fifteenth century
windows from the earlier transept and the bell and bell-cote of ‘Templenagriffin’. Wall plaques
inside the south transept of the cathedral indicate that the area became the burial place of
the local Crosbie family in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A number of Catholic
bishops and some Franciscans were also interred under the east lancet window and inside the
nave of the cathedral in the penal period.
Most of the early- and late-medieval finds from the site were recovered from the general
disturbed burial layers. Objects of medieval note included two thirteenth-fourteenth century
tomb-covering carved stone effigies, water sprouts or gargoyles, two piscina, fragments of a
baptismal font, corbels, a fifteenth century pilgrim’s badge, a number of possible thirteenth or
fourteenth century cross-slabs, an armorial plaque of the O’Briens of Thomond and two
possible thirteenth-fifteenth century jet paternoster beads – one of which was recovered from
a medieval juvenile burial against the east wall of the cathedral beneath an elaborate pillow
stone burial.
A variety of pottery types were found including Ham Green, North Devon, Saintonge and
other continental wares. Other medieval and post-medieval finds included thirty coins,
tokens, jetons nine hone or sharpening stones, a fragment of a twelfth or thirteenth century
iron tweezers, iron keys, a thirteenth century iron arrowhead, a sixteenth or seventeenth
century iron spur buckle, a writing lead, two lead balls, metal buttons, a possible bone pen
holder and a large number of post-medieval clay pipes; and medieval copper-alloy finds
included buckle plates, pins, sewing pins, a stirrup-shaped ring, a strap end and a decorative
mount for a book cover.
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