Talks on Barbavilla, Loughpark and the Webbs of Hilltown

North Westmeath Historical Society, based in Castlepollard, organised three separate events in the locality for this year’s National Heritage Week; talks on Barbavilla House; and on the Webbs of Hilltown; and a visit to Loughpark House.

The first was in Collinstown Hall on Saturday August 15, when Claudia Marl, who for many years resided in Barbavilla House, gave interesting talk on the house and showed slides of the interior of the building. She recalled memories of the family’s arrival in Barbavilla in the 1960s and the many challenges her father Franz Pohl faced renovating Barbavilla, which dates to the 1730s.

Much of Claudia’s talk was about the history of the Smythe family and the shooting of Mrs Maria Smythe in April 1882 while returning from Divine Service with her brother-in-law William B Smythe, who was the intended target of the assassins.

Claudia also spoke about the ‘Barbavilla Harem’ and the woman who lived in the gate lodge who told the local people their future with the aid of her crystal ball.

Barbavilla House will always be associated with the name Iralco and Claudia described the early years of the factory her father established in 1964 in the courtyard of the house, having responded to an advertisement by the IDA seeking businessmen to establish industries in the largely rural Ireland of the time.

Having viewed a number of possible locations, Franz Pohl the owner of several factories in Germany making car parts, chose Barbavilla as the place to start a small factory making chrome parts for cars for the export trade. Thanks to his drive and a talented local workforce, Iralco became one of the biggest employers in north Westmeath.

Webbs of Hilltown

On the Tuesday night at the Castlepollard Men’s Shed, Bill Ryan gave a talk on the Webbs of Hilltown. At the outset, Bill gave two reasons he chose the Webb family for his address: that the Webbs were an important part of the social and economic life of north Westmeath from the early 1700s, when they first arrived in the area; and that shortly after his arrival in Castlepollard in 1981, Bill had the good fortune to meet and become friends with Jack and Mary Rooney of Green Street. Jack and other members of the Rooney family had worked for the Webbs of Hilltown and thought highly of them.

Ever since then, Bill had an interest in that family and was happy to share the information he had gathered about the Webbs with his audience during Heritage Week.

The Webbs were Church of Ireland and were large farmers and in some cases mill owners. They leased large farms from mainly absentee landlords whose ancestors had been granted lands north Westmeath in the distant past.

The first house they built was called Webbsbrook, midway between Castlepollard and Finea. The ruins of that residence can still be seen today. At some point, probably in the 1780s, the Webbs moved to Hilltown, where they built an impressive residence and where they amassed a 600-acre farm, which they eventually bought out from the Land Commission in 1908.

As well as the Webbs of Castlecor near Oldcastle, other members of the wider family resided at Carpenterstown and at Moydristan on the shores of Lough Sheelin, and at Bracklagh near Finea.

Despite the fact that John and Mary Webb of Hilltown had a large family in the mid-19th century, many of their children never married and eventually the Webbs of Bracklagh were the last surviving branch of the family in north Westmeath.

Matthew William Webb and his wife Jane had six surviving children and by 1900 they had moved to Hilltown House and lived there and at Moydristan until their eventual demise.

In 1917, the youngest son Thomas Frederick was killed in action on the Western Front. The eldest son Matthew Coates married Doris Green in 1925 and his sister Jane married Tony Kilroy in 1927, but neither couple had any family.

Following Matthew’s marriage, his brother Percival and their two unmarried sisters Eileen and Kathleen resided at Moydristan.

Following the death of Doris Webb in 1966 the Land Commission purchased the farm and divided it among local farmers.

The last member of the Webb family was Eileen and following her death in 1982, the Moydristan estate was also divided among local farmers by the Land Commission.

In 1700 or thereabouts a Roger Webb married a Miss Roe of Coolure, thus beginning the Webb dynasty that was to survive for more than 250 years. Thanks to the Coolure connection, the Webbs are interred in a large but spartan burial plot in Mayne Churchyard.

Loughpark House

With the kind permission of the owner, Maureen O’Flanagan, the North Westmeath Historical Society organised a visit to Loughpark House on Wednesday afternoon August 19.

The house, on the shore of Lough Lene, is described as an ‘elegant two-storey late 18th century house unusual in being gabled and without a parapet’. It was built as a dower house for the Pollard family, who resided in Kinturk House, Castlepollard, but for most of the 19th century, it was the home of the Evans family, who lived there until the 1880s.

Oisin O’Flanagan, son of Maureen, entertained the large gathering on the visit by recounting various aspects and tales connected to the house as he guided them from the neat and striking stable buildings down to the boat-house and back up the large garden and through the tunnel into the basement of the house.

The visit concluded with a tour of the ground floor rooms and an inspection of the many paintings dotted throughout them.

On behalf of the historical society and all those present, Bill Ryan thanked both Maureen and Oisin for a pleasant and interesting visit to their home.