What is recorded here

Thirteen graveslabs, pulled from the River Nore in 2001, once marked the dead of St Mary’s or St John’s before men stripped them to brace a medieval bridge. One slab still wears an eight-armed cross and the fragment “SABENL,” a name or prayer cut in Norman French during the fourteenth century. They sit now in Magdalan tower, stripped of their graves but unchanged in their warning that even forgotten death must be carried somewhere visible.

Thirteen graveslabs were recovered from the River Nore during the archaeological excavations (01E980) carried out in 2001-2003 as part of the River Nore Drainage Scheme (Doyle and O’Meara 2004, 6-20). These were found associated with the late medieval bridge (KK019-026070-), immediately N of the current John’s Bridge (ibid. 7). It is suggested that the graveslabs were deliberately cleared from a graveyard, possibly belonging to either St Mary’s parish church (KK019-026115-) c. 100m to the W or to St John’s Priory (KK019-026068-) c. 200m to the NE, and used as part of the rubble needed to form a protective apron for the piers of the late medieval bridge (ibid. 16-19). Currently stored in Magdalan tower (KK019-026074-), Maudlin St, Kilkenny. A limestone graveslab (01E0980: 2272/2273) consists of two adjoining fragments of a tapering slab (total dims. L 1.42m; Wth 1.02m; T 0.2m), the top and lower sinister side of which is missing (ibid. 12, 15). It is decorated with an incised floriated cross and, though most of the cross-head is missing with only three fleur-de-lis terminals surviving, enough survives to infer that this was an eight-armed, interlaced cross (ibid.). Below the cross-head the shaft opens into a double-ringed circle (ibid.). The cross-shaft rests on a stepped cross-base, only the dexter side of which survives (ibid.). There is Lombardic script along the sinister edge in Norman French which possibly reads, ‘SABENL’ (ibid.). This graveslab has been dated to the mid-14th century (ibid. 12). See attached photograph: KK019-026421-_01 Photograph by Chris Corlett Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 16 January 2023

Graveslabs recovered from the River Nore, likely medieval in date, represent funerary monuments associated with early Christian or ecclesiastical sites. Their presence in the river suggests historical re-deposition, possibly during monastic site abandonment or riverine activity, offering insights into local burial practices and landscape history.

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