These post-and-wattle buildings, modest and perishable by nature, almost never survive above ground, which is precisely what makes their discovery at the junction of Bride Street and South Main Street so remarkable.

The excavation, carried out in 1988 under the reference E000438 and published by Bourke, uncovered foundations arranged across two plots. The houses span a considerable period, from the eleventh century to the early fourteenth, meaning people were living, rebuilding, and living again on this same small patch of ground for roughly three hundred years. Crucially, this predates the Anglo-Norman arrival in Ireland, which reached Wexford in the twelfth century. The town is often understood through the lens of its Norse and then Norman settlers, so finding such extensive physical evidence of the community that existed before the conquest reframes the site's story considerably. Wexford, known in Old Irish as Loch Garman, was already an established settlement long before outside forces reshaped it, and these foundations are the most substantial material proof of that earlier life discovered in the town to date.