Chesterfield House

NAME                        Chesterfield


AREA LOCATION    Cross Avenue, Booterstown

 
MAP LOCATION       OSI maps of 1838-1845 and 1898-1913 place it in the townland of
                                  Merrion and it is annotated as Chesterfield on both.  On Duncan's map of 1821
                                  and on Rocque's map of 1760 it is unnamed. 

GENERAL                  For lease in 1819 on 8 acres with eleven principal rooms, kitchen, servants hall,
laundry, store room and two coach houses.  There were also apartments for ten servants.  It had a
large productive garden and a sheet of water stocked with fish.  It was surrounded by thousands of
registered and evergreen trees and there was a rustic cottage in the grounds.  A gatelodge was
added during occupation of Nathaniel Sneyd. 
​
In the 1970's most of the house demolished and rebuilt around the drawing room of the original
structure.  A house wasbuilt in the grounds for Tom Roche, junior and his wife Ann Doyle
(daughter of PV Doyle).  Renesca, a newly-built c.11,800sq.ft mansion is also in the grounds of what
was once Chesterfield.
                      
                                           ​
YEAR BUILT              circa 1818         
 
VALUATION             In 1883 the Valuation was 79 Pounds and in the 1901 census it is noted as
​                                    having 19 rooms occupied by family.

ARCHITECT               Unknown

SOURCES                  Thom’s directories, OSI maps, Griffith's Valuation, NAI Census & Wills
                                    contemporaneous newspapers, Griffith's Valuation and Registry of Deeds.
  
OCCUPANTS
1803                           Land leased from Fitzwilliam by Thomas Meade, builder.
1818 - 1820               Stanhope Gresham
1830 - 1833               Nathaniel Sneyd, MP & Wine merchant (Sneyd French & Barton - murdered)
1834                           Mrs Burgh, mother in law to Nathaniel Sneyd and wife of Thomas Burgh, Chief Baron.
1835 - 1838               Rev William Beatty
1840- 1845                Ambrose Cox
1860                           Vacant
1862 - 1876               Henry Dwyer
1876 - 1885               John McCurdy
1885 - 1893               Dowager Lady Jane Anna Eiza Power
1894 - 1923               Howard Rundell Guinness
1923 - 1942               Rev Robert Northridge
1943                           Rev Herbert Aubrey Hamilton Northridge
1947 - 1957               G Ashford Bradbury and Mrs A Bradbury
1957 - 1970               Tom Roche (Roadstone)                                    
1996                           Permission to build 97 house in the grounds (not actioned)
2004                           Myles Crofton's Avenue Homes for €47 million
2018                           An Bord Pleanala gave permission for 217 houses.  The original drawing room is
                                   to be retained within a reconstructed Chesterfield House containing three new
                                   apartments.
             
STAFF

1849                          Eliza Cox & Mary Devans- Gate keepers
1901                          Annie Maxwell - Childs nurse
                                  George Bowden - Groom
                                  Isabella Harison - Cook
                                  Charlotte Magee Cochrane - Housemaid
                                  Elizabeth Smith - Parlourmaid
                                  Marie Angele Nanteuel - Childs maid
1901                          Peter Walsh - gardener living at the gatelodge
1911                          Jemima  Henrietta Campbell - Housemaid
                                  Bridget Maria Douglas - Laundress
                                  Daisy Dorothy Chapman Cosstick - Kitchen maid
                                  Kathleen Gorman - Cook
                                  Margaret Anne Carroll - Parlourmaid
                                  Caroline Maxwell - Childs maid
​                                  Robert James Crone - Groom
1911                         Lachlan Black - Gardener living at gatelodge
       
CURRENT            
STATUS                     

CONTRIBUTOR         ©​ June Bow & Karen Poff
DATE                         May 2019