Ardagh House, Ardagh, Co. Longford – Sisters of Mercy convent
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. 7. “[Fetherston, Bt/PB1923] An irregular 2 storey house of predominantly early to mid C19 appearance. Eaved roof on bracket cornice; porch and corridor with pilasters. Now a domestic science college.”
Attached eight-bay two-storey (originally three-storey) over-basement former country house, originally built c. 1730 and altered c. 1826 and c. 1863. Three-bay two-storey block (formerly a ballroom) attached to the southeast end, having hipped slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves. Single-bay porch with tetrastyle porch to the centre of the front façade (south), adjoined to the east by a four-bay single-storey addition/conservatory with pilasters and lean-to roof. Now in use as training college by the Sisters of Mercy (from c. 1927) with multiple extensions to the east and the northeast. Hipped slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves and cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat roof to porch. Painted rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with painted sills and a mixture of replacement, six-over-six, and three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows. Moulded cornices, square profile piers, and pilasters to porch. Wrought-iron cross finial over porch. Square-headed window openings to single-storey addition/conservatory having eight-over-eight pane timber sliding sash windows with moulded sills. Segmental-headed with moulded surround to west elevation of porch having one-over-one pane timber sliding sash window with moulded bracketed sill. Square-headed entrance opening to porch (recessed) with moulded surround, decorative console brackets, and timber panelled double leaf door. Accessed via stone steps. Painted rendered boundary wall with piers and wrought-iron railings to basement area of front elevation. Set in landscaped surroundings to the north of Ardagh. Gates and gate lodges to the west and the southeast, complex of outbuildings and stable block to the rear (north) and to the northeast.
Appraisal
This substantial former country house retains much of its early character; despite a fire in 1948 that resulted in it being reduced it to two storeys in height. Much interesting fabric remains, such as some timber sliding sash windows, and console brackets to the porch. Although probably early-to-mid eighteenth century in date, this structure now has a predominantly early-to-mid nineteenth-century appearance. The elegant porch and conservatory, and the former ballroom/block to the east, were also added at this time. It also retains some of its early fabric to the interior, despite the fire in 1948 (see below), including plasterwork and fireplaces. This building has important historical connections with the Fetherston family, who developed much the village of Ardagh, particularly in the 1860s. The first recorded mention of the Fetherston family at Ardagh is of a Thomas Fetherston (died c. 1749), who bought a house and 235 acres of land in 1703. The Fetherston estate was some 11,000 acres in size by c. 1900. It is thought that Thomas Fetherston built Ardagh House (or an earlier house) sometime during the first half of the eighteenth century, perhaps c. 1730. The house was in existence in 1744/5 when Oliver Goldsmith (c. 1728 – 1774) visited the house. Apparently, Goldsmith based his most famous play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ on his experience at Ardagh House, when he mistook the house for an inn/hotel. However, Lewis (1837) states that the play in question is ‘Mistakes of a Night’. The Fetherston were later granted the rank of Baronet in 1780. There was an Ardagh House in existence c. 1780 (Taylor and Skinner maps 1777 – 1783). John Hargrave (1788 – 1833) carried out ‘trifling alterations for Sir George Fetherston’, c. 1826 (IAA). James Rawson Carroll (1830 – 1911) later carried out extensive ‘alterations, repairs and additions’ for Sir Thomas John Fetherston, between c. 1860 – 1864. Plasterwork was carried out in 1877 for the Fetherston Trustees (the fifth Baronet, Revd. Sir George Ralph Fetherston had moved to Wales). In 1903 Sir George sold the freehold of their farms to over 300 of his tenants under the Irish Land Act of 1903 but retained the house and the surrounding lands until his death in 1923. The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1922 during Irish Civil War (1922 – 1923). It was sold to the Sisters of Mercy in 1927, who then established a convent and domestic science school here. The house was again badly destroyed by fire in 1948 and the top floor had to be removed as a result. This building forms the centrepiece of a large group of related sites and is an important element of the social history of Ardagh and County Longford.
In Irish Castles and Historic Houses by Brendan O’Neill
and Irish Castles and Historic Houses. ed. by Brendan O’Neill, intro. by James Stevens Curl. Caxton Editions, London. 2002:
Lady Fetherstone’s ancestral home was Ardagh House, a manor house, situated to the north of the village and now a convent. It was here, it is fabled, that young Oliver Goldsmith swaggered and bragged in the mistaken belief that he had arrived at an inn. The landlord humoured him for the night, but Goldsmith’s dismay on realising his mistake the following morning can easily be imagined. However, he later turned his embarressment to his advantage, the incident being central to his comedy, ‘She Stoops to Conquer,’ which was first performed in 1773.
http://visitlongford.ie/listings/ardagh-house/
When you stand in the centre of Ardagh Village and look south, you get an impressive view of the former Ardagh House with also was a Former Convent, also known as St Brigid’s Training Centre. Originally, it was Ardagh House, home of the Fetherston family.
The house was built about 1730 by Thomas Fetherston and it remained the principal seat of his family until the early 1920s. It underwent alterations on a couple of occasions in the 1800s.
A north of England family, the Fetherstons arrived in Ardagh around 1700, having acquired a small amount of land here. They expanded their estate in later years and it was they who built Ardagh Village as it stands today.
Ardagh House was the scene of a famous episode in the youth of the writer Oliver Goldsmith (separate entry on Goldsmith). While travelling back to his home in Pallas from school in Edgeworthstown, he stopped in Ardagh to seek lodgings.
A local directed him to the ‘big house’, saying it was the local inn. The Fetherstons recognised him and ‘played along’ with his misunderstanding to the extent that a daughter of the squire waited on him. The next morning, Goldsmith was told the truth, and he later wrote the play She Stoops To Conquer or The Mistakes Of A Night’, based on the episode.
The last landlord, Rev. Sir George Fetherston was an Anglican clergyman who lived mainly in England. He died in 1923, but by then the estate had been broken-up, with most tenants buying their farms under the land acts. In 1922, the I.R.A. had attempted unsuccessfully to burn the house.
In 1927, the Sisters of Mercy arrived and soon established a training centre for domestic science. The course was modernised later and the centre – St Brigid’s – remained open until 2008. There was a serious fire in the convent in 1949 resulting in renovations that included the removal of the top storey.
Beside the house is a spacious coach yard, which was restored by the Sisters of Mercy
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 111-112.
p. 112 “Now much altered, it clearly followed a double-pile plan, with a large entrance hall, the principal stair in the centre of the E flank and the reception rooms opening off the hall. The decoration is now C19 and neoclassical in character. All that survives from the early Georgian house is fielded panels to the shuttering and door jambs. In the C19, the house was extended by adding a ballroom at the SE corner, a projecting three-bay block with ample sash windows and a hipped roof with oversailing bracketed eaves. A classical porch and arcaded conservatory were added to the entrance front. Most of the C19 alterations were carried out either by Sir George Fetherston, who landscaped the demesne grounds, or by Sir Thomas, who built a large stable court and erected the picturesque estate buildings in Ardagh village. The stables of 1863 by J. Rawson Carroll are attractive redbrick ranges with slated half-hipped roofs in vaguely Scandinavian idiom.
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/01/ardagh-house.html
THE FETHERSTON BARONETS, OF ARDAGH, WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 8,711 ACRES.
The founder of this family,
CUTHBERT FETHERSTON, of the ancient stock of the Fetherstons of Heathery Cleugh, County Durham, settled in Ireland after the battle of Worcester, in which Sir Thomas Fetherstonhaugh was made prisoner, and afterwards beheaded at Chester.
The eldest son of this Cuthbert,
CUTHBERT FETHERSTON, had three sons,
Cuthbert, ancestor of Fetherston of Bracklyn;
THOMAS, of whom hereafter;
Francis.
The second son,
THOMAS FETHERSTON, settled at Ardagh, County Longford and marrying Miss Sherlock, had four sons,
John (Very Rev), Dean of Raphoe;
William, of Carrick;
Francis;
RALPH, of whom we treat.
The youngest son,
RALPH FETHERSTON (c1731-80), of Ardagh, MP for Longford County, 1765-6, was created a baronet in 1776, denominated of Ardagh, County Longford.
He wedded firstly, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Samuel Achmuty, of Brianstown, County Longford, by whom he had an only daughter, Elizabeth; and secondly, Sarah, daughter of Godfrey Wills, of Will’s Grove, County Roscommon, by whom he had four sons and four daughters,
THOMAS, his heir;
Godfrey, killed in the East Indies;
John;
Francis;
Sarah; Maria; Letitia; Elizabeth.
Sir Ralph was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR THOMAS FETHERSTON, 2nd Baronet (1759-1819), MP for County Longford, 1783-1800, for several years in parliament, who married Catherine, daughter of George Boleyn Whitney, of New Pass, County Westmeath, and had issue,
GEORGE RALPH, his successor;
John;
THOMAS, succeeded his brother;
Elizabeth; Catherine; Isabella; Sarah; Octavia.
Sir Thomas was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR GEORGE RALPH FETHERSTON (1784-1853), 3rd Baronet, MP for County Longford, 1819-30, who espoused, in 1821, Frances Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Richard Solly, of York Place, Portman Square, London, though the marriage was without issue.
Sir George and Lady Fetherston landscaped the demesne grounds and the village of Ardagh. The conversion of the old house into the mansion within its demesne may have been completed at this time, and involved the re-siting of the village street or road. The village clock-tower and surrounding buildings were erected in 1863 in remembrance of Sir George and of his life-long devotion to the moral and social improvement of his tenantry, and the site whereon they stand purchased by Frances Elizabeth, his widow. A memorial stone in the old church records his death on 12th July 1853, and that his wife died in London twelve years later and was buried in Walthamstow.
Sir George was succeeded by his youngest brother,
THE REV SIR THOMAS FRANCIS FETHERSTON (1800-53), 4th Baronet, who married firstly, in 1823, Adeline Godley; and secondly, Anne L’Estrange, of Moystown, County Offaly, and had issue,
George Ralph, died in infancy;
THOMAS JOHN, his successor;
Edmund Whitney;
John Henry;
Albert William Boleyn;
Boleyn Henry Francis;
Henry Ernest Wiliam;
Rosa Elizabeth; Catherine.
Sir Thomas was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR THOMAS JOHN FETHERSTON, 5th Baronet (1824-69), who espoused, in 1848, Sarah, daughter of Henry Alcock, and had issue,
GEORGE RALPH, his successor;
Adeline Margaret; Caroline Louisa.
Sir Thomas was succeeded by his only son,
THE REV SIR GEORGE RALPH FETHERSTON (1852-1923), 6th and last Baronet, who died unmarried, when the baronetcy expired.
Sir George was born in Dublin and educated at Brighton College.
In his mid-twenties he entered Salisbury Theological College to prepare for ordination into the ministry of the Church of England.
He served as curate in Tenby and Worcester City, and for six years as Rector or Vicar of the Parish of Pydeltrenthide in Dorset.
He served also as an honorary chaplain to Millbank Military Hospital, London, during the 1914-18 War.
He was one of the first two men in Holy Orders to serve as Sheriff in their Counties until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland clerics of the Anglican Communion were not permitted to hold such Office.
Being Sheriff in 1897 he received the Diamond Jubilee Medal and preached his Jubilee Sermon in St. Patrick’s Church, Ardagh.
Sir George was a man of many interests and hobbies — music, travel, cycling, fishing, photography, collecting ancient china and stamps, bird-watching and study of insects.
He travelled widely in Europe, Africa, North and South America.
This must have absorbed some of the Ardagh estate income.
He was Fellow and Vice-President of the Guild of Church Musicians and of the Victoria College of Music London.
Who’s Who credited him with the composition of 150 alternative tunes for Hymns Ancient & Modern, various chants, songs and other music, but none of these are to be found in current chant and Hymn books.
His publications have been listed as The Malvern Hills, Through Corsica with a Pencil. The Mystery of Maple Street, A Poem: The Rose of England. An Incident in the Siege of Antwerp, A Legend of Corpus Christi College, and four books of Sermons and Addresses.
These may have been published privately for limited sale or distribution.
Sir George may not have had much interest in the ownership and management of the estate.
He entered into voluntary agreements with over 300 tenants to sell to them the freehold of their farms, under the Irish Land Act 1903.
The Ardagh estate was not acquired or purchased by the Irish Land Commission, which, however, advanced the money required by the tenants and others, and the holdings were vested in them by the Commission in 1922-23.
An area of 427 acres of bog land was vested in trustees for the use of purchasing new freeholders.
Sir George retained Ardagh House and demesne acres until his death in a Worcester City Nursing Home, and burial in Tenby, South Wales, in 1923.
An attempt to destroy the house by fire in 1922 may have been a local expression of dissatisfaction with allocation of estate land or an effort to hasten sale of the last remnants of the estate.
Manuscripts written in Irish were salvaged from the 1922 flames of Ardagh House.
ARDAGH HOUSE is an eight-bay, two-storey (originally three-storey) over-basement house, originally built ca 1730 and altered ca 1826 and ca 1863.
A Three-bay, two-storey block (formerly the ballroom) was attached to the south-east end, having hipped slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves.
A single-bay porch with tetra-style porch to the centre of the front façade (south), adjoined to the east by a four-bay single-storey additional conservatory with pilasters and lean-to roof.
Ardagh House was acquired as training college by the Sisters of Mercy ca 1927, with multiple extensions to the east and the north-east.
It retains much of its early character despite a fire in 1948 that resulted in it being reduced to two storeys in height.
Much interesting fabric remains, such as some timber sliding sash windows, and console brackets to the porch.
Although probably early-to-mid 18th century in date, this structure now has a predominantly early-to-mid 19th century appearance.
The elegant porch and conservatory, and the former ballroom/block to the east, were also added at this time.
It also retains some of its early fabric to the interior, despite the fire in 1948, including plasterwork and fireplaces.
THE POET and novelist Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74), when a young man, once loitered on his way between Ballymahon and Edgeworthstown, strayed from the direct road, and found himself benighted on the street of Ardagh.
Wishing to find an inn, but inquiring “for the best house in the place”, he was wilfully misunderstood by a wag and directed to the large, old-fashioned residence of Sir Ralph Fetherston, 1st Baronet.
Sir Ralph, whom the poet found seated by a good fire in the parlour, immediately perceived the young man’s mistake; and being humorous and well-acquainted with Goldsmith’s family, he for some time encouraged the deception.
The incidents of the occasion form the groundwork of Goldsmith’s well-known comedy “Mistakes of a Night.”
https://theirishaesthete.com/2020/12/14/ardagh/
Stooped but not yet Conquered
Originally from County Durham in England, by 1651 Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh was living in Philipstown (now Daingean), County Offaly, the first of this family to settle in Ireland. His grandson Thomas married Mary Sherlock from Kildare and the couple moved to Ardagh, County Longford where around 1703 he bought some 235 acres of land from the Farrell family. At some point between this acquisition and his death in 1749 he commissioned a new residence in Ardagh; this building is said to have provided part of the inspiration for Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy She Stoops to Conquer since the playwright mistook the Fetherstonhaugh’s house for an inn. The couple’s eldest son Ralph sat in the House of Commons of the Irish Parliament for 12 years from 1768 onwards and in 1776 was created a baronet. He also simplified the family surname to Fetherston (other branches retained the name in full). His eldest son Thomas, the second baronet, likewise sat as an M.P., in the Irish Parliament until 1800 and thereafter at Westminster until his death in 1819. The third and fifth baronets, Sir George and Sir Thomas Fetherston respectively were responsible for giving the local village of Ardagh its present appearance, by commissioning new housing for the local population. In the early 1860s Sir Thomas employed Dublin-based architect James Rawson Carroll to design one- and two-storey cottages around a green featuring a clock tower erected to the memory of his uncle, Sir George (see Commemorating a Life-long Devotion « The Irish Aesthete)
Sir Thomas Fetherston had only one son, another George, who was only 13 when he inherited the estate. He later became an Anglican clergyman and travelled widely, meaning he did not spend as much time in Ardagh as had his father. Under the terms of the Wyndham Act, in 1903 Sir George sold most of the estate – by then running to some 11,000 acres – to his tenants, retaining only the house and demesne. When he died unmarried at the age of 70 in 1923 the baronetcy died out also. Within a few years, the former family home had been sold to an order of nuns, the Sisters of Mercy who moved into the building and then gradually added extensions to the east side, from which they ran a home economics college. As in the case of so many other such properties, at the start of the present century the nuns gradually wound down operations here and in 2007 the house and surrounding 227 acres was sold at auction for €5.25 million. However, that sale fell through and it was back on the market for €5; by June 2009, as the effects of recession began to be felt, that price had dropped to €3.25 million. It was finally sold at auction in June 2012 for €1.36 million. Since then, the house has sat empty.
As mentioned, the main house at Ardagh is thought to date from the first half of the 18th century when constructed for Thomas Fetherstonhaugh. But much of its present appearance is 19th century, when it was refurbished first by Sir George Fetherston (who laid out the surrounding grounds) and then by his nephew Sir Thomas. The latter was responsible for the present stable block which, like a considerable portion… [see blog entry]
Irish Historic Houses 