Other Hod(g)kinson Web Pages

Below are a few links to other Hod(g)kinson researchers and web sites of possible interest to  members of the Hodgkinson/Hodkinson extended family.

HOD(G)KINSON Researchers with web sites include the following:

Nick Blackburn has a good range of Hodgkinson items on his web page. 

Other Hodkinson or Hodgkinson Web Sites include the following:

Greta Hodgkinson, principal dancer with the National ballet of Canada.

The Hodkinson family of Limerick were the subject of an article published in the Saturday, May 25th, 2002 online edition of the Limerick Leader.  Here's the full text of the article which is a great summary of an English emigrant family's contribution to ecclesiastical decoration in the Irish Republic.

Painting a vivid picture of Limerick's history - At Home with Aubrey and Juliet Hodkinson of Henry Street, Limerick

ONE hundred and fifty years of history abound inside the Hodkinsons home in Henry Street, but not just an inspiring business and family history, but a wonderfully rich history of Limerick down through the past century and a half.

The family business in ecclesiastical decoration is celebrating 150 years in existence this year and even in the office front window, beside the house old photographic memories of Limerick and its people jump out as you pass by, giving just a few more illustrations of life here before our time.

Aubrey explained the history of the family business.

"My grandfather, James Hodkinson came over to Ireland from Manchester in 1852 with James Earley who worked in marble and glass work. It was after Catholic emancipation so there was lots of Church work to be done."

James Hodkinson settled here and trained with AW Pugin, famous architect and designer of the English House of Parliament and Adare Manor.

Aubrey's father, Louis Hodkinson took up the business and he, in turn, passed on the business to Aubrey.

"I studied under Richard Butcher in the old art school and also under artist, Thomas Ryan," he explained.

Randel, Aubrey's son is now working in the business with him and he has undergone a few courses in different styles of decoration.

He has recently just finished working on a room in the Jesuit Church in The Crescent which is panelled out in Georgian stencilling.

The Hodkinsons have also done all the decorations in the Dominican Church in Limerick City.

The decoration in the sanctuary of St John's Cathedral was done in 1890 by James Hodkinson.

Aubrey explained that their work, often done from scratch and sometimes of a restorative nature can see the men up 70ft high on scaffolding.

"Sometimes you'd have a crick in your neck from looking up so much," he said.

Although Hodkinsons sometimes do work decorating house interiors they specialise in ecclesiastical design.

They have a huge archive of pictures of how churches looked many years ago after they were originally built and this often helps in their restorative work.

"Recently we were in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal working on a church and we managed to reveal the old design which had been covered up for 70 years, and we restored it," explained Randel.

He explained that before they go into a church to work on it they look at the history of it.

"Actually, James Hodkinson was the first to work on many churches so in many instances we'd have a record of the original decoration done on them. For instance, he was the first to work on the Jesuit Church around 1868," Randel said.

The Hodkinsons have lived in the house on Henry Street for 150 years. Aubrey has lived there all his life and his wife Juliet has been there with him for 42 of those.

"This street was full of family homes which passed on from generation to generation, but many of these families have disappeared now, although this has only happened in the last 20 years. Families here would have lived here for well over 100 years," he commented.

As a result there is great history attached to Henry Street.

"I knew the McCourt boys as they lived nearby and Sean Sabhat lived next door to the Windmill Bar."

According to Randel the street has got very busy even since he was a boy and he remembers the first electricity power station being in O'Curry Street and the building still stands today.

The front sitting room of their home is elegant and plushly decorated. The top walls have special ornate plaster detail which was the work of Aubrey's father and it was re-painted last year.

Much of the furniture is original, its ornate nature blending in beautifully with the gold-framed mirror and lavishly decorated ornaments and walls around the room.

Aubrey discussed his grandfather with great warmth.

"He was nearly 93 when he died and he worked right up to the end."

Of course things were very different in the days of James Hodkinson that they would be for the family now.

"My grandfather hadn't any railways for travelling around on so he used travel by Bianconi's coaches. He often went down to Wexford working and often brought his family with him and stayed in rented accommodation."

Of course in James's day also there was no such thing as taking a photograph of his finished work so he often painted a water-colour of it to record his work. One such painting hangs in the original workshop attached to the house. It is of the beautiful internal decorations of the interior of Waterford Cathedral and dates back to 1882. The water-colour is a work of art itself, never mind all the delicate work it depicts which was done on the Cathedral ceiling, walls and pillars.

And with many churches now putting large amounts of money into their renovations and going back to old style decorations it looks like the Hodkinsons will have a lot of work on their hands for many years to come.

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(c) Ian Hodkinson.  Last updated March 2004