Enclosure in Dukesmeadows (shillelogher By., St. Patrick's Par.)

Located c. 365m E of the SE wing of Kilkenny Castle (KK019-026078-). A large, L-shaped enclosure (dims. c. 200m N-S x 210m E-W), probably part of the medieval suburb of Flemingstown identified in a 2010 LiDAR survey of the parkland (Ó Drisceoil 2020, unpublished). The N-S aligned hollow-way (KK019-026223-) runs through the enclosure. According to John Hogan and John Egan the Flemingstown originated as a suburban settlement for Flemish colonists that were settled in their own suburb to the E of the castle (Hogan 1884, 202-3; see Kilkenny Moderator 7.7.1849; Egan 1884, 22-3; O'Kelly 1985, 186). However, the earliest written record of the settlement, a grant of a messuage in the 'Villa Flemang', does not occur until 1339 (Curtis 1932 vol.1, no. 722, 306). Further property grants are recorded in 1350 and 1366 (Curtis 1932 vol. 1, no. 847, 356; Curtis 1934, vol. 2, no. 119, 93). An early 15th century extent of the baronies of Kilkenny in the Ormonde Deeds records that the 'Flemyngeston' occupied an area of 11 acres (Curtis 1934 vol. 2, no. 440, 351). It appears to have been largely deserted by 1413, when according to Prim, the suburban dwellers were transplanted to the manor of Dunfert (Danesfort) by the earl of Ormonde (Prim 1849, 39; Hogan 1884, 203). In Corporation rentals it is referred to as the ‘Fleming’s towne’ in 1391 and ‘Flemynstown’ and ‘Flemyn's-street’ in 1448 (Prim 1849, 38; Hogan 1884, 396). In 1628 a garden in 'Mill Street' was granted by James Archer and this is probably the street that gave access to the Castle Mills (Ledwich 1804, 457). The 'Ffleming streete' was still in existence in 1654 when it is referenced twice in the Civil Survey's description of St Patrick's parish, Kilkenny (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 553). David Rothe, writing in about 1625, described the Flemingstown as having been ‘in the neighbourhood of the castle’ with paved streets, property plots and a 'marble gate': ‘Those two peoples, viz. the Irish and English, having effected a settlement in the place, there came as it were a third colony, consisting, as it appears, of Flemish tradesmen and mechanics, especially fullers, bakers and brewers, and those employed in the linen and woollen manufactures. Invited hither by the earlier citizens and inhabitants, they erected for themselves, on their arrival, a strongly fortified place of residence, in the neighbourhood of the castle, in order to be free from the attacks of plunderers and robbers; and this locality, which they occupied, was from them called Flemings' Town or Flemish Town, as appears from many ancient charters and instruments. From these three peoples merged into one by the infusion and mixture of blood, by intermarriage, and the begetting of children between parents of different nationalities (which are the pledge and bond of lasting union), have sprung the inhabitants of the present day. The villa or street, however, which is named from its Flemish occupants, now bears an empty title, having become quite deserted. And when, within our own memory, the inhabitants had been transferred thence (having been removed to the interior of the rampart and enclosing walls of the castle, or elsewhere, for instance, to Danesfort, three miles from Kilkenny, to serve as tillers of the soil), the marble gate of the town, leading to that highway, on the rising ground opposite the three water mills, which belong to the lord of the castle, was taken down, and the material used in the erection of another gate still remaining, on the bank or edge of the river [Nore], almost midway between Green's Bridge and St. John's Bridge …. From the stone pavements and other indications there, we may gather how extensive those suburbs were, though now split up and intersected with dykes and ditches as a protection for the corn and vegetable crops. And though I have said that the Flemings abandoned their place of abode in the city and devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits …’ (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 4-5). The gatehouse in the suburb’s town wall that was noted by David Rothe was, according to John Prim, removed from its original location at Switzer’s Asylum to the ‘New Quay’ in c. 1803-4 (Prim 1849, 40). The 'New Quay' is located on the north side of the present Market Yard off Parliament Street on Rocque's map. The gate is not marked on the first edition manuscript town plan (1840) and no trace of it is extant today. In 1663 some of the settlement's burgages were noted by Sir William Flower in a letter to the duchess of Ormond: ‘There are some twelve acres of land lying betwixt Ormond’s Leix [i.e. leys] and the road leading up to the marble quarry, anciently belonging to several burgesses, whereout his Grace hath a chiefry, which is very convenoient for his Grace’s use; we humbly desire to know whether we may take a lease of it or leave it to be determined as other chiefries will be belonging to this city; one Tarr is present tenant under Captain Burrell’ (Falkiner 1904, vol 3, 49). Gaining the land facilitated the laying out of the area to the east of the castle as demesne parkland. A second, and unrelated, influx of Flemings to Kilkenny occurred in the 16th century when Piers, the 8th earl of Ormonde, procured '500 Walloon protestant families about Canterbury to remove thence into Ireland' (Carte 1736, vol. 2, 342). Whilst it is possible some of these immigrants were housed in the old Flemingstown, it seems more likely that they would have been placed in the Hightown of Kilkenny. The LiDAR survey identifies low-level earthworks that can be associated with the former Flemingstown (Ó Drisceoil 2020). The earthworks include a N-S running hollow-way (KK019-026223-) with what appear to be burgage plots running off its W side. The hollow-way runs through a large, L-shaped enclosure (KK019-026224) (c. 200m N-S x 210m E-W), that could relate to a former enclosing rampart around the suburban settlement. Alternatively, it could be a post-medieval designed landscape feature. If the property plots do relate to the former Flemingstown, as appears likely to have been the case, the suburb would have occupied an area in the order of 10 hectares NS, roughly between the Switzer's Asylum/Bennetsbridge road and the Ormonde Woollen Mills and EW between the Mill Street to the E and the E side of the current Castle Park, perhaps defined by the Kilkenny borough boundary. A realignment of the Bennetsbridge road (formerly ‘Archers Street’) undertaken c. 2000 would have cut through the southern part of the suburb but it was carried out without any archaeological intervention. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 11 November 2020