Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Landscape gardener, of Dublin. William Sheppard was born of English parents on 18 April 1842 in Hamilton, Bermuda, where his father, a British soldier, was stationed.   When his father retired from the army in 1849, the family returned to England, settling in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.   William trained and worked as a gardener in England before coming to Ireland when he was about twenty-nine or thirty.   In Ireland he became an assistant to NINIAN NIVEN  NINIAN NIVEN and was entrusted with laying out of the gardens at Glenart Castle for the Earl of Carysfort circa 1872-1874..    After Niven's death in 1879, he set up his own business at 20 Oxford Road, Rathmines, describing himself as 'Successor to the late Mr. N. Nevin'.   By 1883 he had moved his premises to Dundrum.(1) . He subsequently moved to Rathgar, to Rathmines and finally to Ranelagh. He was the probably best-known landscape architect in Ireland in the thirty years between 1880 and the First World War.

Sheppard died at home in Ranelagh on 11 December 1923 and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery. (2)  His wife, Jemima (née Tiller), also from Fordingbridge, whom he married in Arklow on 23 May 1872, had predeceased him in 1900.  He commissioned a  stained-glass window to her memory from Kempe & Co. of London, which was erected in the north choir aisle of St Patrick's cathedral, Dublin. Their son William Tiller Sheppard (b.1873) joined his father's landscape business.

Addresses: Glenart, Co. Wicklow, ca 1872-73;  perhaps 26 Richmond, Drumcondra, 1875;(4) 20 Oxford Road, Ranelagh, 1880-82;  Charleville, Churchtown, Dundrum, Co. Dublin, 1883-1892; 74 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, 1893-1907; Ahody, 3 Dartry Road, Rathmines, 1908-1912;  Fintona, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, 1913-1923.

See WORKS.




References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from  Eric Sheppard, great-grandson of William Sheppard (Apr 2009) and from Thom's and Post Office directories.

(1) Thom's Official Directory (1883), advertisement supplement, 76.
(2) Grave no. 10980 (B of I ).
(3) illus. in Gloine, http://www.gloine.ie/gloine/building/building/3054/(last visited Apr 2009).
(4) A 'William H. Sheppard' was living at 26, Richmond Drumcondra in 1875,  which would have been convenient for working at Niven's premises at Garden Farm, Drumcondra.


21 work entries listed in chronological order for SHEPPARD, WILLIAM


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Building: CO. WICKLOW, GLENART CASTLE (FORMERLY KILCARRA CASTLE)
Date: 1872-74ca
Nature: Employed by 5th Earl of Carysfort to make new gardens.
Refs: Irish Times, 14 Sep 1874; Thom's Official Directory (1883), advertisement supplement, 76; E. Malins & P. Bowe, Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830 (1980), 60(illus.),61.

Building: CO. WICKLOW, GLENCORMAC (BRAY)
Date: 1874
Nature: Gardens laid out by WS. For James Jameson.
Refs: Irish Times, 20 Dec 1883 (information from Eric Sheppard)

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, JAMES LARKIN ROAD, ST ANNE'S
Date: 1883a
Nature: Lays out gardens at St Anne's for 1st Baron Ardilaun.
Refs: Thom's Directory 1883, advertisement section, 76.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ST STEPHEN'S GREEN, PARK
Date: 1883a
Nature: Employed by Lord Ardilaun 'to superintend the works of improvement'. Cost about £12,000.
Refs: Thom's Official Directory (1883), advertisement supplement, 76;  E. Malins & P. Bowe, Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830 (1980), 148(illus.); Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 533;  Irish Times, 29 Oct(?) 1913 (information from Eric Sheppard, Apr 2009).

Building: CO. ARMAGH, ARMAGH, CATHEDRAL ROAD, ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE, CEMETERY (RC)
Date: 1887p
Nature: Catholic cemetery in grounds of seminary laid out by WS during episcopate of Archbishop Logue.  (Mulligan suggests that he might also have laid out the terraces in fron of Armagh Catholic cathedral.)
Refs: Guide to St Patrick's Cathedral (1904), 56;  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 111.

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, MONAGHAN, ST MACARTAN'S SEMINARY
Date: 1890s
Nature: Terraced lawns and avenue laid out by WS.
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 482.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DALKEY, SORRENTO ROAD, MONTE ALVERNO
Date: 1891
Nature: Design for garden.
Refs: Drawing by WS in National Library of Ireland (repr. in Conan Kennedy, Grandfather's House (Killala, 2008), 44).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HAROLD'S CROSS, PARK
Date: 1893-94?
Nature: Laid out by WS for Rathmines Township commissioners. Officially opened 1 May 1894.
Refs: Plaque in park;  Irish Times, 24 Aug 1893, 2 May 1894, 12 Sep 1930 (information from Eric Sheppard).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PALMERSTON PARK
Date: 1894
Nature: Laid out by WS for Rathmines Township Commissioners.
Refs: Irish Times, 10 Sep 1894 (information from Eric Sheppard)..

Building: CO. DUBLIN, SHANKILL, CORBAWN
Date: 1896ca
Nature: Grounds of new villa for T. Falls laid out by 'Mr Sheppard, Dublin'.
Refs: Building News 71, 7 Aug 1896, 188

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUN LAOGHAIRE, BEACH GARDENS
Date: 1900
Nature: Laid out by WS.
Refs: Dun Laoghaire town council minutes, 1900 (information from Eric Sheppard).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, BLACKROCK, CARYSFORT AVENUE, CARYSFORT TRAINING COLLEGE
Date: 1901
Nature: Laying out of gardens and new roads.
Refs: Irish Times, 9 May 1901.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUN LAOGHAIRE, PAVILION GARDENS
Date: 1903
Nature: Gardens laid out by WS 'in a very pretty way'.
Refs: Irish Times, 27 Jun 1903.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HERBERT PARK
Date: 1905-1909
Nature: Engaged to lay out portion of grounds for International Exhibition, 1905. Makes proposals for future of park after end of exhibition.
Refs: Irish Times, 7 Mar 1905; Irish Independent, 23 Apr 1909.

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, MONAGHAN, DISTRICT LUNATIC ASYLUM (1863)
Date: 1907
Nature: Patients laying out grounds 'in accordance with the plans of Mr Sheppard, the well known authority in landscape gardening'.
Refs: Anglo Celt, 14 Dec 1907 (information from Eric Sheppard).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PHOENIX PARK, ZOO
Date: 1907
Nature: Laid out by WS.
Refs: Irish Times, 19 Aug 1907.

Building: CO. MEATH, KELLS, PUBLIC PARK
Date: 1913
Nature: WS visits Kells 'with a view to advising as to the best means of completing the levelling and proposed layout of the Public Park'. For Kells Urban District Council.
Refs: Meath Chronicle, 15 Nov 1913 (information from Eric Sheppard).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CIRCULAR ROAD SOUTH
Date: 1913
Nature: Planting of trees on S Circular Road, for Dubolin Corporation. 'The contract for it has been entrusted to Messrs. Sheppard and Son, the well known landscape gardeners, of Dublin'.

Refs: Irish Times, 15 Oct 1913 (information from Eric Sheppard, Jul 2009)

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DALKEY, BULLOCK HARBOUR, BULLOCK CASTLE
Date: ?
Nature: Garden laid out by WS.
Refs: Irish Times, 7 Nov 1984 (information from Eric Sheppard).

Building: CO. GALWAY, PALLAS (TYNAGH)
Date: ?
Nature: Gardens laid out by WS. For 10th? Earl of Westmeath.
Refs: Irish Times, 20 Dec 1883 (information from Eric Sheppard)

Building: CO. DUBLIN, SANDYFORD, MURPHYSTOWN ROAD, GLENCAIRN
Date: ?
Nature: Garden laid out by WS for Richard Croker
Refs: IB 51, 10 Jul 1909, 424.