Monksgrange Archives

Monksgrange Archives (in the ownership and care of the Edward Richards-Orpen Memorial Trust) holds a large collection of personal and estate papers, photographic images and collectables of the Richards and Orpen families of Counties Wexford and Kerry.

Monksgrange Archives are enhanced by ensuring the preservation and long term care of its collections by increasing access, widening its audience, overcoming barriers and building relationships with the wider community. The near 10 year project of sorting, arranging and cataloguing a vast collection of family papers at Monksgrange began in 2008. Some documents in the archives date back to the 17th century.

The house at Monksgrange, Co. Wexford, built for Goddard Richards and completed in 1769, lies in the centre of the demesne lands. Early estate maps drawn 1757-1821 and the Ordnance Survey maps from 1840 to date indicate a largely unchanged layout of house, garden and field systems even today. The three overlapping lobes of influence on the physical unity of the place will be examined with the help of illustrations of maps, drawings and narrative imagery from the extensive Monksgrange Archives.