Charlestown House, Clara, Offaly
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. 81. “(Goodbody/IFR)A two storey near-symmetrical Victorian Italianate house with curved bows, entablatures on console brackets over the windows and a fancy pierced roof balustrade, standing near one of the family mills by a mill-race lined with yews and other trees, giving it the appearance of a garden canal.”
Detached four-bay two-storey over basement former country house, built c.1790, with full-height bows added to ends, return to rear and extension to south. Now divided into two apartments. Set within its own grounds. Hipped slate roof, hidden by pierced balustrade, with rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls with continuous sill course to first floor level, supported by corbels. Timber sash windows with moulded surrounds, console brackets supporting cornices with corbels supporting sills. Wyatt windows to garden elevation. Moulded surrounds to first floor windows. Square-headed door opening with moulded surround and console brackets surmounted by cornice to timber and glazed door with overlight, accessed by tooled limestone steps. Stone outbuildings with pitched and hipped slate roofs to north and south. Cast-iron gates set to ashlar gate piers with rendered sweeping walls to front.
Designed by J. S. Mulvany, Charlestown House, once the home of the Goodbody family, was originally built in the eighteenth-century as a square block. It was remodelled, by Mulvany, with the addition of the flanking full-height bows and decorative window surrounds, which increased the visual appeal of the building. Architectural design and detail are apparent in the form and execution of the ornate window and door surrounds, reflecting a high quality of craftsmanship applied in their finishing. The setting of the building is enhanced by its elevated position, the outbuildings and entrance, making a significant domestic group.
Charlestown house, on the edge of the town of Clara in county Offaly, was originally a rather plain rectangular house of the late 18th century. It was Robert Goodbody, a Quaker from Mountmellick who bought the property and crucially the adjoining mill circa 1825. He had married into the wealthy Pim family which seemed to be his catalyst to greater things.
Firstly the house was extended to the rear to become L shaped, subsequently a bow fronted extension was added to the north side while the south side had a bow applied and the central part was carefully extended forward to match. A roof balustrade runs the length of the front and ties it all together. John Skipton Mulvany was the architect responsible for the alterations, his father was a friend of James Gandon .Mulvany also worked on other Goodbody houses in the locality.A mill race once ran between the house and mill, and must have extenuated the beauty of the setting.The town of Clara now runs up to the rear yards of Charlestown and only to the front does it fully look, maintain and indeed justify its country house origins and personality.
The Goodbodys were the key to the prosperity of Clara and its environs.Their mills and factories created hundreds of jobs for the locals. Robert had 3 sons, Marcus,Johnathon and Lewis Frederick,who joined with their father,firstly in the milling business. A sack factory was established in 1853 and a jute one in 1864. A partnership formed in 1865, lasted 23 years until in 1888 it became a limited company, much to the shock and possibly disapproval of Bank of Ireland, who perhaps upon due diligence being exercised or just necessity were forsaken in favour of Ulster Bank by the Goodbodys .The initial capital of this “new ” company, wholly family owned ,was £48,000.
This limited company continued until 1936 when it became a PLC, which lasted until 1984.
In the 1870s Johnathon lived at Charlestown House. The Goodbody family also owned Drayton Villa, Kilcoursey House, Inchmore, Beechmount, Cork Hill and other fine but smaller homes in the area.Their wealth was considerable as demand surged for Their products.By the 1870s ,apart from their industrial wealth Johnathon had 2128 acres in Offaly and shared 1087 acres in Westmeath with Marcus. Marcus had 1608 acres in Offaly and 2309 acres in Galway too. Lewis Frederick had 484 acres in Offaly and indeed 106 in Galway .The history of the company is too extensive to record fully here, but it went on to have branches and businesses in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Slane as well as Clara. The descendants of the Clara Goodbody family have prospered well too since and the name is still well known in Ireland.Another later generation Robert Goodbody lived in the house up until the 1920s. In 1913, the phone number of the house was Clara 10.At some stage , Mary the widow of Harold ( actually Joseph Harold) Goodbody,who had ” rebuilt” Kilcoursey House in 1909 moved into Charlestown House, possibly in the 1940s/50s? .In fact she moved into part of it as it had been internally split into 2 huge apartments .My information suggests that Harry Galbraith, a director of J. & L.F. Goodbody Ltd (and perhaps others )shared the building with her.Apparently, as had been suggested to me ,the house, and indeed the other Goodbody houses too were in fact owned by the company.To the best of my knowledge the last of the very large and extended Goodbody family to live in Clara were Desmond and Douglas,sons of Joseph Harold and Mary.
In the 1970s Fred Payne and his son Bill bought Charlestown from the company. The Paynes continue to live there and indeed showed me kind hospitality on my visit.
My own grandfather had agreed to buy Drayton Villa in the late 1930s but at the request of the local Roman Catholic Church who wished to purchase it he bought elsewhere instead (hopefully for a heavenly and financial gain),Kilcoursey was sold to the Flynn family (since resold ) and Inchmore was sold many decades ago to a religious institution,later sold for private use to Derry Kilroy,was resold, and now lies sadly in danger of dereliction, hopefully with better days to come.
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=C
In 1786 Wilson refers to Charlestown as the “the fine seat of Mr. King, most delightfully situated on the Shannon”. The first Ordnance Survey map marks both Charlestown House and Charlestown Old House closeby at M984 976. Valued at £46 at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. In 1894 Charlestown was the residence of Sir Gilbert King. The house is no longer extant but extensive estate architecture survives.
Irish Historic Houses 