Monksgrange, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 208. “(Richards/LGI1912; Richards-Orpen, sub Orpen/IFR) A mid-C18 gable-ended house with curved sweeps and wings, built 1769 on the eastern side of Blackstairs Mountains by Goddard Richards. Main block of three storeys over a basement; five bay front, with niches on either side of centre window in middle storey; doorway with pediment on console brackets, approached up broad flight of steps with railings of handsome ironwork; bold quoins and string-courses. Originally, only the right-hand wing was built: a coach-house in the form of a square pyramidal roofed pavilion, linked to the main block by a curved sweep with rusticated doorways and little lunette windows. To the left, there was only a screen wall, which was taken down shortly after 1798 so that a wing could be built; but the rebellion – during which a bonfire was made of all the furniture – put an end to the work. Shortly ante 1914, E.R. Richards-Orpen, who inherited Monksgrange from his mother, began building a wing to the left of the house, according to his own design, with a curved sweep balancing that on the right, but ending in a much larger range than the right-hand pavilion. This range was to contain a new hall and other large rooms; and it was given an imposing end elevation, with a handsome rusticated arch and an entablature on console brackets; this was to be the new entrance front; a garden terrace being constructed along the original front of the house. Work on the new addition was interrupted by the Great War, but was resumed in 1920s; and the walls of the new building were completed by 1939; they are of local Blackstairs granite and Wicklow granite, some of teh quoins being from Kilbryde, a demolished house in County Carlow, and from the burnt-out ruin of Castleboro. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the work finally ceased, leaving the new building as a roofless shell, though the curved sweep had been completed; it has a dormered roof. The hall in the original block is low-ceilinged, with an arch opening to the stairs, which are of noble joinery and rise the full height of the house. The doors have shouldered architraves, and handsome C19 brass finger plates of cut scrollwork. Drawing room with small bookroom opening out of it to right of hall; dining room to left, with corner fireplace and chimneypiece inserted by Mr John Richards-Orpen. This room formerly opened into hall wiht arches, wihch have since been glazed, having been intended by E.R. Richards-Orpen to serve as an anteroom to the large rooms in his uncompleted wing. Opening off it is the only one of the new rooms to have been completed, behind the left-hand sweep, it is now the kitchen, but was intended as a second ante-room, and has an armorial stained glass window.”
Detached five-bay three-storey double-pile over part raised basement country house, dated 1769, on a Palladian plan with three-bay single-storey wings abutting single-bay two-storey “pavilions” on square plans. Vacated, 1798. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Pitched double-pile (M-profile) slate roof; pyramidal slate roofs (“pavilions”), clay ridge tiles, lichen-spotted coping to gables with slate hung chimney stacks to apexes having cut-granite corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, slightly sproketed eaves, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite “Cavetto” cornice retaining cast-iron downpipes. Fine roughcast walls on cut-granite chamfered cushion course on fine roughcast base with rusticated cut-granite quoins to corners. Round-headed central door opening approached by flight of six cut-granite steps between wrought iron railings, cut-granite lugged surround with “Cyma Recta” or “Cyma Reversa” open bed pediment on fluted consoles framing nailed timber panelled door having fanlight. Round-headed niches centred on square-headed window opening (first floor) with cut-granite sill, andcut-granite monolithic surround framing six-over-six timber sash window. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite monolithic surrounds framing three-over-six (basement), one-over-one (ground floor), six-over-six (first floor) and three-over-six (top floor) timber sash windows. Square-headed central door openings (wings) with two cut-granite steps, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing timber panelled doors. Square-headed window openings (“pavilions”) with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite monolithic surrounds framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining carved timber lugged surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors, and moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; elliptical-headed opening into staircase hall with Classical-style surround centred on fluted keystone; staircase hall (west) retaining timber panelled staircase on a dog leg plan with turned timber balusters supporting carved timber banister terminating in volute, carved timber surrounds to window openings to half-landing framing timber panelled shutters, carved timber lugged surrounds to door openings to landings framing timber panelled doors, and moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; dining room (south) retaining carved timber lugged surrounds to door openings with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters, cut-fossilised black marble Classical-style chimneypiece, and picture railing below moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; drawing room (north) retaining carved timber lugged surrounds to door openings with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters, cut-black marble Classical-style chimneypiece, and picture railing below moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; and carved timber lugged surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters. Set in landscaped grounds including “haha” with part creeper- or ivy-covered wall having lichen-spotted cut-granite “saddleback” coping.
Appraisal
A country house erected by Goddard Richards (1717-95) representing an important component of the mid eighteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on scenic vistas overlooking wooded rolling grounds; the neo-Palladian plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase not only demonstrating good quality workmanship in a silver-grey granite, but also recalling the “improved” Ballymore House (see 15701612); the definition of the principal floor as a slightly elevated “piano nobile”; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, including some crown or cylinder glazing panels in hornless sash frames: meanwhile, contemporary joinery; restrained chimneypieces; and sleek plasterwork refinement, all highlight the artistic potential of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (—-); a walled garden (—-); a “faux” Irish tower house eye-catcher (1822); a so-called “Cistercian Fishpond” [SMR WX018-037—-]; and a Georgian Gothic gate lodge (see 15701802), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of an estate having historic connections with the Richards family including Reverend John Richards (1757-1828); Goddard Hewetson Richards (1798-1829); John Francis Richards (1824-60) ‘late of Grange [sic] in the County of Wexford…who died at Killane [sic] Glebe County of Wexford’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1861, 259); and Edward Moore Richards (1826-1911); the Orpen family including Goddard Henry Orpen JP (1852-1932), ‘Barrister [and] Writer of History [including “Ireland Under the Normans” (1911-20)]’ (NA 1901; NA 1911); and Adela Elizabeth Orpen (née Richards) (1855-1927), ‘Writer of Novels [including “Perfection City” (1897) and “The Jay-Hawkers” (1900)]’ (NA 1901; NA 1911); and Edward R. Richards-Orpen (1884-1963) ‘who inherited Monksgrange House from his mother [and] began building a wing…according to his own design [containing] a new hall and other large rooms… Work on the new addition was interrupted by the Great War [and] resumed in the 1920s [but] with the outbreak of the Second World War the work finally ceased’ (Bence-Jones 1978, 208-9).
https://theirishaesthete.com/2019/08/28/a-significant-birthday/
Last weekend saw festivities marking the 250th anniversary of Monksgrange, County Wexford. Completed in 1769, the house has remained in the ownership of the original builder’s descendants, something of a rarity in Ireland as is also the property’s extensive archive of documents, thoroughly mined over many years by Philip Bull for his recently-published book, Monksgrange: Portrait of an Irish house and family, 1769–1969 (Four Courts Press). In its simplified Palladian design, the building is representative of the aspirations of the country’s landed gentry in the mid-18th century, adopting and adapting aristocratic taste better to secure its own place in the then-social hierarchy. While Monksgrange has undergone some alterations and modifications over the past two and a half centuries, it retains an important place in the history of our architectural evolution.
https://www.discoverireland.ie/activities-adventure/monksgrange-garden-norman-gallery/88457
Supplanting the original 18th century garden, the current layout was completed in the 1920’s. A folly castle built in 1822 adds an air of history to its surrounding garden. This garden containswonderful specimen trees and shrubs, and a collection of azaleas and rhododendrons. Peaceful paths meander along a natural stream where ponds, small waterfalls and sculpture create interest and calm.
The acid soil and temperate climate allow a variety of plants to thrive including some tenders you’ll see eucryphia, hoheria, camellia, pieris, and magnolia mingling with the scented philadelphus.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/high-flyer-down-on-the-farm-1.1032767
Aug 1, 2006
A New Life Former pilot Jeremy Hill runs a farm in Wexford and is involved in the arts, writes Sylvia Thompson
Hours before the first evening of Blackstairs Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème by Opera A La Carte last month, Jeremy Hill was sweeping up in the marquee at Borris House, Borris, Co Carlow, where the Opera in the Gardens season would be held.
He had the look neither of the Wexford farmer he is now, nor of the Aer Lingus pilot he was for 32 years previously.
An affable man in his 60s, Jeremy Hill tells his life story with an equanimity that belies any sense of struggle he may have had with his various career choices.
The eldest son of a Waterford GP, he was educated at Headford school in Co Meath and later in England before going to Trinity College Dublin to study natural sciences.
“That’s what we were told to do. I failed my first year, but I was gloriously naive in that I always wanted to be a pilot, so I left Trinity. It never entered my head that I wouldn’t get into Aer Lingus,” he says.
As luck would have it, in the early 1960s Aer Lingus was looking for ab initio pilots. Up to then, former military pilots flew civilian aircraft but, according to Hill, there was a view that “their flying habits were not suitable for civilian flying”.
Hill became one of the first airline pilots to be trained by Aer Lingus in Ireland.
Throughout the 1960s, he moved up the ranks of Aer Lingus, from flying F27s (the Dutch two-engine aircraft known as Focher Friendships) to co-piloting 707 jets on the transatlantic route.
“It was a period in aviation which was changing dramatically. The planes were changing from piston-engined aircraft to turbo props to pure jets. No pilots starting a career now would see such radical change in the aircraft they fly. It was very exciting and extremely glamourous. You were king of the world.”
In 1970, he married Australian occupational therapist Rosie Stamp, with whom he has had three children, Ben (now 35), Emmy (33) and Tom (31).
He continued to co-pilot the 707 aircraft until 1976, when he was made captain. From 1976 to 1983, he was captain on the Boeing 737. But then, as Aer Lingus faced its first financial difficulties, he availed of two years unpaid leave from 1983 to 1985, during which time the family moved to his wife’s home city of Melbourne, Australia.
“Australian life was wonderful. It’s such an outgoing place and everybody does things. The beaches and sports facilities are fantastic. I couldn’t get a flying job while I was there, so I worked as a courier driver.
“I could have quit and stayed in Australia but I would have been throwing away my pension. Also, my father died during that time and my maternal uncle, John Orpen, left us the farm at Monksgrange, where we now live and work.
“My uncle told us we could sell the farm on the spot if we wished which was very generous-spirited of him. I had spent a lot of my childhood on that farm and I would become the eighth generation of the family to farm it, so there was a great bond with the place.”
Home from Australia, the family moved back to Dublin where the children finished their secondary education and Hill returned to Aer Lingus.
They began to spend as much time as possible on the farm in Wexford. The opportunity to leave his job as a pilot arose in 1993, as Aer Lingus faced its second period of financial difficulties and offered redundancy packages to its staff.
“I was 50. It was a voluntary redundancy package. In fact, the government of the time altered the pension rules, so we could take an early pension. I had been considering how I could get more involved in the farm – we had owned it for nine years at that stage.”
So all the family moved to the fine three-storey mid-Georgian country home and began to farm full-time.
“We were all country people at heart. We had lived in Glencree, Co Wicklow with a sheep farm of 80 acres of rocky land when we were first married.” The move to the country was therefore a relatively smooth one and Jeremy Hill never flew an aircraft again.
“On reflection, I was lucky to leave flying when I did. At the time, I was looking forward to going to farm full-time, but I had never dreamt that I would give up flying. I couldn’t have imagined a day I wouldn’t fly.
“Flying has changed radically. It’s uncomfortable now with lots of delays in the airports and in the air. It’s a lot like the roads – it’s no longer a nice experience to drive.”
By the time the Hills moved to Monksgrange, they had already changed from cattle farming to horse breeding. Hill’s late mother, Charmian, was well-known as the owner of one of Ireland’s greatest racehorses, Dawn Run, which won both the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
“My mother had kept horses all her life and I knew a little about racing and breeding from a general interest point of view. I now see that I was naive, but we learnt quickly and have survived the ups and downs of farming.”
Alongside this new farming life, Hill also nurtured his lifelong interest in the arts by establishing an art gallery on the farm, the Norman Gallery.
He was also one of the founding members of the Wexford Arts Trail and more recently has become chairman of Blackstairs Opera, which hosts opera in the gardens of country homes in Wexford and Carlow every summer.
As his work in the arts continues to flourish, he says he is about to retire (again) and hand over to his son, Ben, who works full-time on the farm.
“What I want to do is give up everything and do nothing,” he says with a laugh.
“Of course I won’t do that but what I’d really love to do is to work on stone sculpture. I have done some pieces for my own amusement and I’d love to have gone to art college at the age of 20. Perhaps, in my next life, I’ll be a sculptor.”
https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/enniscorthy-guardian/20170829/281711204782973
Irish Historic Houses 