Woodbrook
- Classification
- Manor
- Country
- Ireland
- Region
- County Wexford
- Address
- Woodbrook, Killanne, Enniscorthy
- Period / style
- Regency (rebuilt c.1820)
Woodbrook, first built in the 1770s, sits beneath the Backstairs Mountains near Enniscorthy. During the 1798 rebellion, local rebels occupied the house, allegedly led by John Kelly, referenced in the song "The Boy from Killanne." Kelly was later hanged on Wexford bridge and received a monument in Killanne cemetery. Arthur Jacob, Archdeacon of Armagh, originally built Woodbrook for his daughter Susan, who married Captain William Blacker. After rebel damage, the house was substantially rebuilt around 1820 as a regular three storey Regency pile with overhanging eaves, a correct Ionic porch surmounted by a balcony and three bays of unusually large Wyatt windows on each floor. The drawing room features an exceptionally large space with a fine chimneypiece believed to come from the original house. The "flying" staircase stands in the centre of a square double-height hall without touching the walls, with individually fashioned timber treads connected by iron balusters, a remarkable tour de force of the joiner's art with its closest parallel at Chevening in Kent. The Woodbrook branch inherited Carrickblacker in the 1850s when the senior line ended. During Edwardian times, Edward Carew Blacker, a sporting bachelor, lived there. After his 1932 death, the house lay empty before Irish army occupation during World War II. His nephew Robert modernised it extensively in the 1950s after relocating from Carrickblacker. Sold in the mid-1990s, it was purchased in 1998 by the current owners who continue residing there. Available as a film location, with overnight accommodation including dinner and a venue for concerts, recitals, meetings and receptions.
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