Hoddersfield House,

Co. Cork.

Documenting our Heritage

In 1801 William Henry Moore-Hodder, Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant and a Colonel of the North Cork Militia commissioned the architect Abraham Hargrave to design a new mansion house on his Hoddersfield estate. William had started life as William Henry Moore and assumed the name Hodder as a condition to the inheritance of the Hoddersfield estate from his uncle William Hodder. William Hodder's relative, also named William Hodder had been High Sherriff of County Cork in 1661.

Hoddersfield House was a large, weather slated, square, three storey over basement mansion house. Five bays at the front, with a three bay centre breakfront. The fanlit doorcase was bordered by ionic columns and led into a fine hallway. The house contained twenty-eight large rooms with a cantilevered stone staircase in an oval side hall.

Lewis describes Hoddersfield in his 1837 topographical dictionary as 'the residence of Col. Hodder, a handsome house beautifully situated in a domain of 647 acres, embellished with extensive plantations rising above the Awenbuoy, whence the drive to the house is a mile and a half long through a picturesque glen'

The house was inherited by William Henry Moore-Hodder's son William Henry John Moore-Hodder who had been born in 1846. W. H. J Moore-Hodder was a Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant and he became High Sheriff of Cork in 1899.

The Census of 1911 records William Moore-Hodder, age 64, farmer and single living at Hoddersfield with his sister Lucy Fludyer, age 66. The Moore-Hodders had a staff of six: Joseph Deaton, age 42, Butler; Sarah Kemich, age 50, Ladies Maid; Margaret Worrell, age 24, Cook; Ellen O'Connor, age 38, House Maid; Mary Rowling, age 19, Kitchen Maid and John Lone, age 18, Footman.

William sold Hoddersfield House in the 1920s. The house was occupied into the mid 1960s, when badly rotten roof beams caused the house to be abandoned.