Tannery in Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Canice Par.)

A tanning yard to the rear/E of 17-20 Vicar Street, accessed by the former Mill Lane, in the N of Irishtown uncovered in test-excavations (20E0279) by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil (Ó Drisceoil 2020). The 1654 Cromwellian Civil Survey describes a tan house, then occupied by one John Murphy, to the rear of the Chancellor's Manse (KK019-026121-), 'A Tan house [62 feet [c. 18.9m] x 20 feet [6m] with two rooms] ye Walls stone and ye ruffe slates Cont 24 Tan fatts and a mill to grind bark. A yard Cont[aining] 7 p[er]ches [35m] small measure wherein there is 6 Tan fatts. A house [22 feet x 16 feet with three rooms] ye Walls stone ye ruffes slates. A yard Cont 4 p[er]ches [20m] and one Orchard 12 p[er]ches [60m] small measure' (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 542). The chapter book of St. Canice’s Cathedral also describes the same tannery in 1703, as well as the location of the Chancellors Orchard in detail, 'To the chapter whether the lease indented and made by Rev. Cauldulas chanceller of the cathedral church of St canices Kilkenny unto the Rev James Tovey clerk dated 30th day of september 1702 of all that waste ground & gardens belonging to the said chancellers together with all the chancellers orchard extending in length fom the kings highway leading to Troys gate in the West to the river Neor in the East and in bredth from the vicars land in the posession of Caleb Trovey in the North unto the lands of_______ and the river Neor runningby the citty wall in the South & all of the tan house covered with slate & orchard thereunto belonging, extending in length from the vicars choral garden and orchard in the West unto the river Neor in the East and in bredth lying between the orchard which was formally called the chancellars orchard in the South unto the stone wall near the treasueres orchard in the North for the term of forthy years' (Chapter Book St Canice's Cathedral 25th March 1703; see Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 175 and fn 1). The tan house and some of the external vats are marked on the 1840 OS Town Plan, the 1850 (annotated as No. 10 on the 1840 Town Plan) Griffith's Valuation and the 1872 Ordnance Survey map. In 1850 Griffith's Valuation the 'Offices and tan yard' is occupied by Richard Sullivan Esq. and the lessor is Joseph Loughnane, who had extensive property interests in the Irishtown and elsewhere in Kilkenny at the time (Bradley 2000, 17). By c. 1865, when the property had been included in the 1865 valuation, it had closed (ibid.). Six individual tanning pits were recorded in two test trenches (20E0279), overlying and probably cut into, a reclamation make-up deposit which produced two sherds of Kilkenny-type pottery of 13th-14th century date (Ó Drisceoil 2020). This deposit probably corresponds with a 1.7m thick alluvial reclamation deposit recorded overlying the natural river-gravels by Brenda O'Meara in a cutting monitored 5m to the SE of the area tested (04E0694 ext; O'Meara 2007, 18). The tops of the pits have been truncated by the reduction of ground levels in the area for the Smithwick's Brewery in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Five of the pit, were lined with thick deposits of compact yellow marl clay. The sixth was timber-lined. The clay lining of the largest exposed pit extended below the foundation of the standing S wall of the long tan house shown on the 1840 Town Plan and abutted the foundation of the north gable wall of Chancellor's mill house, the rear range of the Chancellor’s Manse house (KK019-026121-). The timber-lined tanning pit was filled with a lime mortar deposit, probably derived from the 'lime holes' around Greens Bridge depicted on the 1840 Town Plan. The tanning pits remain in situ (Ó Drisceoil 2020). See attached photograph by Ó Drisceoil of tanning pits in trench 2. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 13 November 2020