Villierstown 2.37

Villierstown is a village in west County Waterford, Ireland. It is situated on the banks of the River Blackwater. The latest census of 2006 recorded the population of the village at 260.The village is approximately 8 kilometres from Cappoquin and 20 kilometres from both Dungarvan and Youghal.HistoryVillierstown was founded by the Villiers-Stuart family, from where the name is derived. In the 1740s the 1st Earl Grandison; John Villiers, established the village to develop a linen industry. The village was initially populated with linen-weavers, some of whom were from Lurgan in Co.Armagh. The original village consisted of a church, a rectory, a school, 24 dwelling houses, a court, a police barracks and a quay on the river. All of these buildings are still in the village today, the church has been converted to a community hall, on its grounds is the Villiers-Stuart's family burial vault where many of its ancestors are buried.During the famine (1845–49) the linen industry in Villierstown died out. Some local people turned to fishing on the Blackwater as a source of employment. The majority of villagers were given work by the Villiers-Stuarts on the estate at Dromana which itself encompassed Villierstown and beyond as far as Dungarvan and Helvick, where the family occasionally resided in the Summer. The Villiers-Stuart family were known to be one of the most civically minded estate holders in Ireland, earlier Lord Stuart de Decies, himself a Protestant, spent much of his political life furthering the cause of Catholic Emancipation with Daniel O'Connell.