Some time ago, news reached me about the availability of an archive relating to Woodville House, a structure I hadn’t heard of before. Woodville House was built by the Right Hon. Henry Clements circa 1700 on the site of Ballydowd Castle. [Read Mary Mulhall’s article on the history of Woodville here]
The Scott family were later occupants, and they are commemorated on a plaque in St. Andrew’s Church, Lucan. The house was an imposing one that stood between St. Edmundsbury and Hermitage. Nothing remains of the house or estate today apart from some related outbuildings and some trees that grew alongside it. It was demolished in 1972.
I made contact with the current owner who, due to the fact that 17 boxes of stuff were currently filling one of her rooms, was happy to donate the archive to South Dublin Libraries. The “stuff” turned out to be a valuable addition to Lucan’s history. So many old houses got rid of their historical papers as not being of interest or valuable. I heard a first-hand account of bonfires of such items taking place in the yard of Corkagh House, another South Dublin “Big House” casualty.
I received a list of items in the boxes, and three tantalising photographs of some of the contents. These include pictures of the house itself which are extremely rare, and they clearly show the size and beauty of the house. Regrettably, they also quantify the loss to Lucan’s heritage after its destruction.
To go into the difficulties involved with the importation of the archive would be a tedious read. Suffice to say that Brexit, Revenue and Invoices loom large in those difficulties. However, at this stage, we have Revenue clearance and an invoice with an itemised list of contents, and hopefully we are all set to ship the archive in the coming weeks.
In due course there may be scope for SOL members to be involved in transcription or other crowdsource opportunities depending on what the archive holds.
This is early days and we can only plan when we receive the boxes, but I look forward to (hopefully) good news when the archive arrives and a plan is drawn up.
Finally thanks to Helen Farrell for letting us in South Dublin Libraries know about this priceless collection!
[Editor’s note: read about Woodville House as described by local children in the 1930’s in the Dúchas Schools’ Collection here]
[Let us know if you want to get involved in the transcription project? OldLucan@gmail.com]
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