Overton House,

Co. Cork.

Documenting our Heritage

During the boom years of the cotton industry the Allman family became very wealthy. George Allman built himself a comfortable mansion house close to his mill. The house was weather slated, five bays at the front with a wing on each side. The wings and sides of the house featured niches containing statues.

After the closure of the cotton mills and post Famine, the Allmans sold the whole Overton estate to Mr Maurice Healy, a businessman involved with the export of merchandise from co. Cork to Bristol and Liverpool. Healy used the storage area of the mills as a grain store, it was said the contents of an entire ships hold could be accommodated within the mill.

In 1911 the occupants of Overton House are recorded as: Maurice Healy age 55 grain merchant and his wife Margaret Healy age 52. Maurice had four daughters and a son: Gertrude age 23, Kathleen age 21, Margaret age 19, Patrick age 17. Maurice’s daughter Nan Healy Hallahan age 22 was married to William Hallahan age 30. The Healys had a staff of seven: three nurses Aileen Okeeffe, Alice Shorte and Mary McCarthy. A cook, Ellen Buckly, a parlour maid Ellen Caughlan and two clerks, Cornelius Fooney and Michael Mahony.

The Healys lived in Overton House until around 1917, after which the estate was divided amongst various local farmers. Overton House fell into disuse, eventually being dismantled in the 1940s.

Anything of use was taken from the house, the roof removed and it was left as an abandoned shell.