Quay

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on the E side of the low-lying and narrow part (L c. 4.5km NE-SW; Wth c. 600m-1.5km NW-SE) of Hook peninsula. Nicholas Loftus was confirmed in possession of 157 acres at Slade in 1666 (Hore 1900-11, vol. 4, 425-6), and in 1684 Henry Loftus built a quay for fishing boats here, according to Robert Leigh writing in 1684 (Hore 1858-9, 459-60). In 1685 Henry leased Slade to Henry Mansel, who was a brother-in-law of his wife’s, and who had been implicated in the Monmouth rebellion in England against James II in 1685. Mansel developed the saltworks (WX054-012----) and used the pier to import rock salt and coal. In 1746 the pier is described as in need of repair, but whether or not it got it, what became known as the ‘old quay’ was probably the only pier at Slade until the E pier was built as a famine relief scheme in 1847 (Colfer 2004, 150-56). The facing of the quay on the S side of the harbour in front of the castles and the saltworks was probably provided at the same time as it is of similar character to the stonework on the E pier.

The N pier (L c. 60m WNW-ESE; Wth c. 4-5m) is of two construction phases. The W end of the pier is cut from the limestone bedrock (L c. 18m) and expands in width on the W, landward, side (Wth c. 10m). The limestone blocks (L c. 1.2m; H c. 0.3m) that were quarried away on the landward side were used to build the pier and a shelter wall (Wth c. 1m) on the pier’s N side. At a later period smaller stones (dims c. 0.5m x c. 0.2m) were used to raise the surface of pier and provide a new sheltering wall on the N side (H c. 2m) built on the base of the older wall. Three corbels and the stump of a fourth projecting on the N side of the pier belong to the second construction phase. Although the pier is depicted on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map as about half (L c. 30m) the length of the surviving pier there is no vertical break in the stonework that would suggest that the pier was lengthened in the later 19th century. The stonework of the slipway in front of the castles on the S side of the harbour was repaired under archaeological supervision (20E0519) when its structure was studied but no further features were noted or artefacts recovered (McLoughlin 2021)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 31 March, 2014
Amended: 9 November 2022

References

Colfer, B. 2004 The Hook peninsula. Cork, University Press

Hore, P.H. 1900-1911 (Reprint 1979) History of the town and county of Wexford, 6 vols. Dublin. Published by arrangement with W.A. Hennessy Esq.

Hore, H. F. 1858-9 A chorographic account of the southern part of the county of Wexford, written Anno 1684: by Robert Leigh, Esq., of Rosegarland, in that county. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 5, 17-21, 451-67.

McLoughlin, C. 2021 Monitoring Report, Slade, Co. Wexford. Licence: 20E0519. Unpublished report, Stafford McLoughin