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- Oak Park
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- Oak Park c.1900
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- Oak Park c.1890
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- Oak Park
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- Oak Park Gate looking towards Carlow town.
- Source: Google Street Map.
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OSi map of Oak Park House. |
Oak Park Gate
looking towards the estate.
Source: Google
Street Map
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- Oak Park front entrance.
- Source: Jim Horan
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Oak Park & Oak Park House
Oak Park House in Carlow town is probably
the finest 18th/19th Century house in south east Ireland. The house
itself is of huge architectural and historical significance. There
are 700 acres of Woodlands and open pasture including a lake.
The history of Oak Park (once known as
Painestown) has been known since 1775 when the
park was in the possession of the Bruen family, until
the death of Arthurn Bruen in 1954. In 1960 it was
sold to the Irish Land Commission and opened the
National Teagasc Tillage Research Centre there.
Farmers from the west of Ireland bought small pieces
of land to farm, thanks to loans. So every year the
farmers had to pay back the Land Commission a sum on
the size of their holding.
The Bruen Family purchased Oak Park, formerly known
as Painestown around the year 1775. In 1832, Henry Bruen commissioned
William Vitruvius Morrison to redesign the house. It is remodelled in
the classical style and retains the existing house as its central
component. The front façade features a two-storey Ionic portico set on a
pedestal. Today Oak Park House and demesne is the property of Teagasc –
the agricultural research body. It has recently become the
administrative headquarters for Teagasc.
Source: Carlow County Library
Source & AskAboutIreland.ie
Oak Park House, Oak Park (Painestown), Carlow
The Bruen Family purchased Oak Park, formerly known as Painestown
around the year 1775. In 1832, Henry Bruen commissioned William
Vitruvius Morrison to redesign the house. It is remodeled in the
classical style and retains the existing house as its central component.
The front façade features a two-storey Ionic portico set on a pedestal.
Today Oak Park House and demesne is the property of Teagasc – the
agricultural research body. It has recently become the administrative
headquarters for Teagasc.
Donated by "Carloman" (Carlow County Library)
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 Oak
Park House - rear view
Oak Park Estate, now Teagasc
Research Institute, is situated about two miles from the centre of
Carlow town. The photograph shows the rear of the house which looks
towards the gardens. This side the house had three central windows
and single-storied bow windows to either side. These were situated on
the ground floor and were balustrade. To the left of the entrance
were found the service wing and the offices.
Source: Carlow County Library
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- Oak Park Farmyard Complex c1750-1780
Stable complex, built c1765, comprising
two-storey cut stone building with round-headed blind arches and
three-bay gable-fronted buildings opposite. Renovated, c1985, with
openings remodelled.
The Mausoleum
The Mausoleum is a large structure located in
the woods, approximately 500 metres north-west of Oak Park House. It
was designed in 1841 by the architect John B. Keane in the style of a
Greek Peripteral Temple. Keane was initially a draughtsman with the
Morrisons and probably got the commission because of this. The exact
purpose for its construction is unknown but it is possible that Henry
Bruen II commissioned it as a memento of his victory over Daniel O‟
Connell Jnr. In the Westminster election of 1841. The Temple was never
completed and it was later used as a Mausoleum. The last two Henry
Bruens and their wives are buried in the Mausoleum.
The Graveyard
OSi map of Painstown church ruin in Oak Park |
Painstown Graveyard and church in ruin
Oak Park |
Bing map of Painstown church ruin in Oak Park |
Painstown Church. in Oak Park Estate (in ruins).
Here lyeth ye Body of RICHARD LYNAM and Family he Died
March 1768 Aged 20 years
Here Lieth the Body of EDWARD LYNAM
Father to the Above RICHARD who Depd this Life November the 6th
1791 aged 75 years Also his wife MARGRETH LYNAM Alias CROW who
Depd this Life January 9th 1795 Aged 75 years Lord have Mercy on
their Souls Amen."
JPMD, Vol V.,
Issue 1901, 02 , 03, CARLOW, Page 310.
Source:
http://www.susiewarren.com.au/co_carlow_jpmd_painstown.htm
The Graveyard and Church are located
in the Farmyard about 400 metres south of Oak Park House.
The origin of the small ruined Church is uncertain. It is
most likely that some stage it was used as a private Chapel
for early Coke (or Cooke) landlords who were Catholic. An
engraved stone slab with the date 1670 was found during a
clean-up but according to some experts there are indications
that part of the ruins date to an earlier period. Two
table-tombs within the ruins contain the remains of some of
the Coke who owned Oak Park.
Source:
http://www.gttp.org/content/listings/47/files/12/ireland.pdf
The Ice House
The Ice House is located just north of Oak Park
House. It appears as a raised mound covered with tall beech trees. It
consists of a brick-lined, egg-shaped chamber, about 6 metres deeps
and 4 metres in diameter at its widest point. It was constructed
around the year 1810 and its function was to store ice that was
collected from the Figure 10: The Grand Arch at Oak Park lake during
the winter. Because the chamber is subterranean and well-insulated,
the last of the hard-packed ice did not finally melt until the middle
of the following summer. Before the era of refrigeration, it was the
only method by which it would be possible to preserve perishable foods
for any length of time. Meat or other perishables were lowered onto
the ice from the entrance using a pulley system. Icehouses were an
integral part of most large estates from the late 1700s.
Source: Carlow County Library
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- Oak Park Arch, Oak Park (Painestown), Carlow
The Arch, Oak Park, designed by William
Vitruvius Morrison which is at the entrance to Oak Park House and
demesne. It remains to this day a magnificent example of a Triumphal
Arch. The arch is flanked by paired Ionic columns on the front
elevation with Doric columns on the back flank of the Arch. The
columns are raised on pedestals. Both sides of the Arch carry a full
entablature. On the approach from the Carlow side, is a carriage turn
surrounded by a high granite wall.
Source: Carlow County Library
Picture courtesy of Kathleen Haven (nee Browne). Early 1900s
?, pictured at Oak Park estate, Carlow are some of the workers
on the staff of the estate. The last man sitting on the right
is John Browne of Carlow.
Source: Michael Purcell
I wonder if any of our readers can
name any of the other men pictured here?
Please
send names to
mjbrennan@blueyonder.co.uk
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Revealing the story of
Oak Park House
By Suzanne
Render
This item was
previously published in the Nationalist 10th March 2000.
ONE NEVER fails but to be impressed by
the grandeur and splendour of Oak Park House. Imposing itself on the
landscape amid hundreds of the country's most fertile agricultural
acres, its reputation as a centre for agricultural research is
unrivalled.
But what of the origins of Oak Park
House?
Continuing in its series of fascinating
lectures, the Old Carlow Society will host an evening devoted to Oak
Park House and lands on March 15 at 8pm.
The lecture will be given by Paddy
Comeford, a retired station manager at Oak Park who will discuss the
building itself, the families that live there and the house's
progression from the seat of a landlord's family to a modern
research centre run by Teagasc. An interesting aspect of the lecture
is that it will be held in
Oak Park House itself, thus adding
atmosphere to the occasion.
Having worked in Oak Park House from 1961
to 1998, Paddy's interest in the building's rich history quickly
developed. Over the years he has extensively researched the families
who lived in the house and the development of the estate which
originally consisted of approx. 1600 acres.
Paddy will guide those who attend the
lecture through the history of Oak Park House, first lived in by the
Cooke family and from 1775 onwards five generations of the family
of Henry Bruen.
The original Oak Park property purchased
by the first Bruen consisted of 6000 acres, by 1843 this had
increased to 21,000 acres.
Paddy will reveal that when the last
Henry Bruen died in 1954 he left the property to his first cousin
Francis Bruen, a move zealously contested legally by his daughter.
A court case ordered everything to be
sold and the proceeds divided evenly between both parties, thus
leading to the end of Oak Park House at a residence.
At the auction the land was purchased by
Brownshill Farms which a number of years later was taken over by the
Land Commission. In the division that followed, An Foras Taluntais
purchased the building. In subsequent years An Foras Taluntais
joined with Acot to form Teagasc.
Today the exterior of
Oak Park House remains the same as when it was occupied by the
Bruens. The inside, however, has changed substantially, with most of
the upstairs converted into offices and laboratories.
Source: The Nationalist 10th
March 2000. & Michael Purcell
[
Henry Bruen
] [
Destructive Fire at Oak
Park. ]
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- © 2001 County
Carlow Genealogy IGP
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