The Park, Ramsfort, Gorey - Wexford Guide and Directory, 1885
About “Wexford County Guide and Directory,” 1885
George Henry Bassett produced 7 Irish county directories in the 1880s: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Kilkenny, Louth, Tipperary and Wexford. Each provides useful history of the respective counties as well as lists of office holders, farmers, traders, and other residents of the individual cities, towns and villages.
The directories are naturally an invaluable resource for those tracing family history. However, there are a few points to bear in mind.
- This online version of Bassett’s Wexford County Guide and Directory is designed primarily as a genealogical research tool and therefore the numerous advertisements in the original book, many full page, and quite a few illustrated, have been excluded.
- The text has been proofed with due care, but with large bodies of text typographical errors are inevitably bound to occur.
- Be aware that there were often inconsistencies in spelling surnames in the 19th century and also that many forenames are abbreviated in Bassett’s directories.
With respect to the last point, surnames which today begin with the “Mc” prefix, for example, were often formerly spelt as “M‘,”. For a list of some of the more common forename abbreviations used in the directory, see Forename Abbreviations.
NEXT in interest to the town itself is the Fort, from which adverse circumstances drove the last of the Rams about fourteen years ago. It is situated in a demesne, the entrance to which is within a few hundred yards of the Main Street. The buildings are chiefly remarkable for the expenditure of money which Mr. Ram made upon theM. Indeed, it is said that the debts which the amount realized by the sale of his estates did not satisfy, were largely due to the more than princely style of his dealings with architects. The purchaser of Ramsfort and the Gorey estate was the late Mr. William M. Kirk, and one of his first acts was to make a change of name to “The Park.” In the day of Mr. Ram free admission was given to all parts of the demesne, and the same rule is continued by the Kirk family, with this exception, that the pleasure-gardens are open only on Thursdays. There is much to interest the visitor without the gardens. The demesne abounds in trees of gigantic height. Among them are oaks gross enough to yield twenty-four-inch planks. The trunk of one oak is not more than three feet high. Huge branches rise from it, each being a tree in itself. Near the house are some splendid horse-chestnuts.
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