July 2023 Archives - EXCELLENT STREET IMAGES

TESTING A BETA APP

I am experimenting with Google Bard AI which is a beta product but I must admit that I am disappointed by the results.

A few days ago I visited Roebuck Road and asked Bard to produce a description and I have included what I got below [note: it is way too difficult to determine if any of the description is in anyway accurate or true]

Towards to bottom of the page there is a much more true and accurate description.

ACCORDING TO BARD:

Roebuck Road is a residential road in the Rathgar suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is located off the Lower Rathgar Road, and runs parallel to the Grand Canal. The road is about 1.5 kilometers long, and is home to a mix of family homes, apartments, and businesses.

The history of Roebuck Road dates back to the 18th century, when it was known as the “Rathgar Lane”. The road was originally a country lane, leading from Rathgar to the village of Terenure. In the early 19th century, the road was developed with a number of large Georgian houses. These houses were built for wealthy merchants and professionals, and many of them still stand today.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Roebuck Road became more densely populated, as a number of smaller houses were built along the road. The road also became home to a number of businesses, including shops, pubs, and restaurants.

Today, Roebuck Road is a thriving residential and commercial area. The road is home to a mix of people from all walks of life, and is a popular place to live, work, and shop.

Some of the notable landmarks on Roebuck Road include:

Roebuck House: A Georgian mansion built in 1785, which is now a private residence.
Rathgar Castle: A 16th-century tower house, which is now a ruin.
The Grand Canal: A canal that runs parallel to Roebuck Road, and is a popular spot for walking, cycling, and boating.
Rathgar Park: A large public park, which is home to a playground, tennis courts, and a lake.
Roebuck Road is a charming and historic road in Dublin, and is a great place to live, work, and visit.

Here are some additional facts about Roebuck Road:

The road is named after the Roebuck Inn, which was located on the road in the 18th century.
The road was originally a toll road, and a toll gate was located at the junction with the Lower Rathgar Road.
The road was widened in the early 20th century, and a number of new houses were built.
Roebuck Road is served by a number of bus routes, and is within walking distance of the Luas Green Line.
I hope this essay has given you a better understanding of Roebuck Road in Dublin. If you are ever in the area, I encourage you to take a walk down the road and explore the many shops, restaurants, and businesses that it has to offer.

Roebuck, also originally known as “Rabuck”, is a townland and the name of a former estate in the baronys of Dublin, Uppercross, and Rathdown in Ireland.

The townland incorporates roughly all the land in the triangle between Clonskeagh, Dundrum and Mount Merrion. Historically significant buildings which exist (or existed) in the area include Mountainville House, Mount Anville, St. Thomas’s Church, Owenstown House, Roebuck Hill, Hermitage House, Friarsland House, Prospect Hall, Roebuck Park, Belfield House and Harlech House.

Roebuck became established as a location shortly after the Norman invasion of Ireland (from 1169). In 1261, it was owned by Fromund Le Brun, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and a castle was built there in the 13th century, which was badly damaged in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. It was pictured in a ruinous condition by Gabriel Beranger around 1768. It was sold by Nicholas Barnewall, 14th Baron Trimlestown, to James Crofton, an official of the Irish Treasury, in around 1800.

In 1466, Elizabeth le Brun, the last of Fromund’s family, married Robert Barnewall, 1st Baron Trimlestown. The Irish Civil Survey of 1654-56 recorded that the estate consisted of around 500 acres. It remained in the hands of the Trimlestown family until the early nineteenth century when parts were sold off. The surgeon Solomon Richards acquired land in the area of the estate known as Roebuck Grove from Baron Trimlestown in 1812.

The estate was acquired by the Westby family in 1856 and from 1943 until 1985 it was owned by the Little Sisters of the Poor. It later became part of the University College Dublin campus.

ONCE KNOWN AS THE ROAD OF TEN HOUSES

Putland Road was laid out as a Famine Relief Scheme. It was known as “The Road of Ten Houses” because that was the number of houses at Putland Villas. A few years later the road took on the name of the Putland family, the local landlords who lived in Bray Head House. I think that the ten houses are at Sydenham Villas.

Charles Putland (1785–1859) was the youngest son of George Putland and Constance Putland (née Evans), niece of the 2nd Baron Carbery. Charles was educated at home and TCD, where he graduated BA in 1804. That year he entered King’s Inns, but never practised as a barrister.

In 1812 he married Constance Massy (d. 1842) and lived for a time in Blarney, Co. Cork, where he gave a site and £100 in cash for the building of a Catholic church. After inheriting the family estates at the age of 56, he proved a committed, progressive landlord, greatly interested in agricultural improvement. In 1845, at the start of the famine, he wrote to the Freeman’s Journal reporting the results of his experiments for combating blight. The following year he was experimenting with new strains of wheat; his excellent early wheat was praised by the Freeman’s Journal in 1849, as were his proposals for encouraging employment by modifying the poor law rating system. His political views were equally progressive, given his class. He had voted for the liberal/repealer ticket in a Dublin city election in 1835, and when Daniel O’Connell passed through Bray in 1845, Putland was only prevented by illness from being on the welcoming platform. He sent his apologies to the meeting, gave all his men a day’s holiday, and authorised the cutting of greenery from his shrubberies to decorate the town. In 1849 he granted an unsolicited 25 per cent rent reduction to his Wicklow tenants.

Charles Putland died on 25 December 1859, leaving assets of £25,000. He had seven children.

His eldest son, Charles Putland (1813–76) did not follow his father, uncle, and grandfather to Trinity. As a young man he got into financial difficulties, and local Bray tradition refers to his gambling debts as a factor in the sale of Sans Souci. In June 1857 he made headlines when he was charged with knocking unconscious, at Bray railway station, a Mr John Edwards who was paying unwelcome attention to his sister. He lived at Sarsfield Court, Cork, but returned to Bray after his father’s death. He continued his father’s policies, reducing rent when tenants’ cattle died, financially encouraging the fertilising and draining of land, contributing to the extension of the catholic chapel in Blarney, and supporting the local national school. In March 1861 he opened access to Bray Head but withdrew this two months later, after a fire broke out on his lands. He contributed to the building boom in Bray, opening (1862) a road in his demense from Newcourt-Vevay to the strand (initially called Newcourt Road, it was later renamed Putland Road) and leasing the one-acre Elsinore (Strand Hotel) site for the construction of sea-front residences.

July 2023

ROEBUCK ROAD A TOTALLY FALSE DESCRIPTION BY GOOGLE BARD

A SECTION OF PUTLAND ROAD IN BRAY COUNTY WICKLOW