Newbridge House was built in 1747 by Archbishop of Dublin, Charles Cobbe. Originally from Hampshire, Cobbe settled in north Dublin and built a house in
the Palladian vision for his family, complete with orchards and later a productive walled garden. In 1755 his heir and sole surviving son Thomas together with
his wife Lady Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Beresford, extended the house which included increased servants’ quarters and a large modern kitchen. In the early nineteenth century, Frances Power Cobbe revelled in the fresh, home-grown and uncomplicated food of her childhood at Newbridge. She celebrated her parent’s sober and simple diet in contrast with the previous century. However, a recent discovery, a Georgian recipe book has revealed that the Newbridge diet was far from humdrum. This talk will explore the newly discovered Cobbe family recipe book, charting its trans-national influences, the network of inter-familial recipe sharing and the richness of ingredients available to north Dublin’s inhabitants over 200 years ago.

Cathal Dowd-Smith is the Curator & Collections Manager of Newbridge House and Farm and Malahide Castle and Gardens. He holds a degree in the History of Art and Architecture and History from Trinity College Dublin. Cathal’s current research interests are in the Irish country house, and the architectural and landscape histories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.