When the owner of Mill House was a child she lived on Naas main street and would often walk past the property and dream of owning it. “I always loved it,” says Josephine O’Connell.
The large period house is skirted by the Grand Canal along one boundary and sits in almost two acres of gardens. It was owned at the time by Claude Odlum of the famous milling clan and his wife Doris, and adjoined the Leinster Mills, one of nine mills and depots that once formed part of the Odlum empire.
Time marched on and Josephine married architect Brendan O’Connell and the pair bought a rundown Georgian house on Dublin’s North Great George’s Street which had no running water or electricity and came with seven sitting tenants.
Josephine was unfazed by the restoration project that faced her. “You just need hard work, vision and knowledge,” she says now.
But the Mill House still tugged at her.
Then, in 1982, the property came up for sale. Claude Odlum had died at the ripe age of 97, and his wife had moved to England to be near her daughter.
“I was very surprised when it came up for sale and more surprised when we actually ended up managing to buy it,” says Josephine.
Once again, the couple were faced with a home with no running water or electricity – though this time round there were no sitting tenants. The original house was built in the 1790s, just a year after the Naas branch of the canal was opened. Then called Leinster Grove, it housed the manager of Leinster Mills, and there was a two-storey building linking the two.
When the Odlums decided to put the house on the market, they had to remove the link and of necessity that meant cutting off the water, electricity and central heating. “Our friends called it ‘the amputated building’,” laughs Josephine.
That was 37 years ago, and since then the couple have restored the house completely, and most recently replaced the roof. They have also reared four children who have all now flown the coop.
The house is a little piece of local history, and as such is under a preservation order. The Mill once employed many of the locals, and the sight of barges laden with grain was once common along the canal.
It was back in the late 1890s, says Brendan, that the Odlum family bought the house, and gussied it up with an extension that added two grand reception rooms and a new facade to the front. No doubt, the more impressive frontage was the outward show of their increasing prosperity.
The current house is three storeys over basement, running to 538sqm, with a wonderful large and bright dining room with marble fireplace, ornate cornice work, sash windows and original wooden floors. The drawing room is equally elegant. The solid wood staircase and oak panelling in the hallway showcase their early Victorian origins.
Behind these ‘public’ rooms lie both the earlier parts of the house and an addition made by the O’Connells – a large, bright, cedar-clad sunroom raised to the level of the ground floor on concrete pillars. The adjoining sitting room has a wood-burning stove, and oak panelling and has been kitted out with a second kitchen.
Off the drawing room is a large kitchen that for many years served as the O’Connell family kitchen, and behind that a warren of rooms that includes an office, guest WC, and larder, as well as access to the back yard. The kitchen is large and bright and with a revamp could make a fine kitchen/dining space for a family.
When the couple bought the house, Josephine was running a Montessori school in Dublin, and she remodelled the basement to accommodate another creche closer to home that she ran for many years.
Today, the basement is a vast space with separate access, and could be renovated to make a spacious home office, cinema, den for teenagers or an entire apartment that could bring in rental income.
On the first floor, there are four double bedrooms, three are en suite, and two also have mezzanines. All look out over the long front garden. The sunny master bedroom is also on this floor and has a sink and shower in the room. New owners could easily carve out space for a separate en suite without feeling cramped or two of the smaller bedrooms could be returned to their previous use as dressing rooms.
The original bathroom sits on the return, and is used as a linen room. It contains a vintage cast-iron bath.
A narrow stairs leads up to the third floor and the last two double bedrooms, also en suite.
Mill House is set in 1.8 acres of grounds, most of which lies to the front of the south-facing property. An avenue winds up to the house planted with mature beech and on the sunny spring morning that the Sunday Independent visits, is noisy with birdsong.
Behind the house is a huge barn that, among other things, accommodates materials for their son John O’Connell’s work as an artist. To the rear is the old Leinster Mills, now closed, that is currently looking for a new tenant.
To the right of the property lies the Grand Canal that has played such a big part in the life of the big house.
The latest chapter was written when Brendan and Josephine’s daughter tied the knot recently – the celebrations took place on an old barge tied up on the canal.
However, the family are ready to downsize, though Josephine says she is “heartbroken” to be selling.
Mill House would make an ideal family home for a purchaser keen for a slice of period elegance, and looking for something of a refurb project in the basement.
Dublin city centre is roughly 40 minutes’ drive, while Sallins is a short walk away, and Naas town centre, with all its amenities, schools, shops and transport links, is a gentle 20-minute stroll down the canal.
Agent: Jordan Auctioneers (045) 433550
Viewing: By appointment
Size: 538.8sqm
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