First House in Kells to get Electricity
Williamstown, 280 acres, has a large house on it in which the Rev George Garnett lived. He had recently married, and died in 1856 leaving the place to his eldest son, William Stawell Garnett who was born in 1838. The early Oakley Park deeds concern both Thomas Williams who lived at Williamstown, and Joseph Williams, probably his brother, who lived at Oakley Park then called Lawrencetown. Joseph Williams built the early part of Oakley Park, and Thomas rebuilt Williamstown, which was previously called Boaravely. Boaravely is also the proper name for the river, which is usually called the Moynalty River. However, the Williamstown House of 1830s was built in the second half of the 1700s by Rev George Garnett’s father. It is an impressive three-story house, which looks very like nearby Rockfield, and the two houses are probably by the same architect. Towards the end of the 1900s the Garnetts left and Williamstown was occupied for a while by the Dyas family; they left it to Miss McCormack who died in the 1970s. Since then the house has been empty and is slowly decaying into a ruin.
My mum, Ann Mellerick (Guerin), was raised in this house as a child - my gran, Rosie Guerin, was a maid and then companion to Miss McCormack until her death,and who I met many times as a child; my gran remained living in the yard lodge of Williamstown for the rest of her life, until 1997. Williamstown and all its surrounds hold magical childhood memories for me, the river and all the great woods and trees - where myself and my brother built great babbyhouses and hideouts. It makes me very sad to see it like this, and I really hope it's not for demolition, Barbera Mellerick
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