Rare old millionaire

NOT all of the riches in Rochestown are nouveau, the village which is now a Cork suburb has had wealth for generations.

Despite the presence of dozens of multi-million euro 20th century houses though, there’s only a handful of surviving period properties which testify to Rochestown’s earlier well-heeled residents.

One of those rare period homes, Woodville, is now to set to change hands via the auction route, and its premium €3.5 million price guide underlines its rarity value. It may be bought as a family home, or as a statement-making corporate HQ.

Zetor tractors from Brno in what’s now the Czech Republic were assembled in a shed behind Woodville, in a business and property once owned by Woodville’s current occupants the O’Shea family.

Almost 200 years ago, the Georgian house was built for a wealthy merchant shipping family, the Hartys, when it stood on considerable grounds in Cork’s affluent Rochestown, then a country stretch overlooking the Mahon Estuary.

The Harty name has come back to surface in recent years, with the highly successful and contemporary styled apartment development Harty’s Quay having set a design statement that has been copied far and wide.

Go back across the Rochestown Road, and the evidence at Woodville House is of a place that hasn’t changed too much with the passage of time.

Despite the addition of a couple of 1970s bathrooms, and the selling off of most of its acreage, Woodville

House has kept much of its period charm and detailing. The two-storey, over-basement residence, owned for decades by the O’Shea family has about 4,300 sq ft of space, with three fine reception rooms, five bedrooms, and a five-room, flag-floored basement that hasn’t been touched in a century, bar being used for storage.

Brick and stone arches with a walk-through passageway surround the lower level on three sides, like a moat, designed to keep damp at bay from the basement, which is lit with tall windows.

The ground floor proper has elegant, tall sash windows, six panes over nine, while the top floor arrangement is a more regular six panes over six. There’s a couple of fine marble fireplaces, and included in the surviving glories is the selection of rosewood doors.

Woodville House comes up for sale on 1.4 acres of land, with a sloping lawn fringed by mature hardwood trees, including a large copper beech. New housing has crept in behind, over the hill, and beneath.

Now, there’s one more section set for imminent development: the last sale of land, to the back, has just been agreed where 1.3 acres of zoned ground (it housed a tennis court) has been bought for over €2 million.

Woodville’s estate agent Darragh Taaffe of Keane Mahony Smith, jointly with Byrnes of Carlow (with Ronnie Collins of Collins Brooks in Clonakilty doing legals), says there’s only a few houses of this vintage and easily-restorable quality left in Rochestown: though it has been quietly, or irregularly, available in recent times, he feels the auction route will consolidate a sale.

November 9 is the date.