CASTLE BLUNDEN THE RESIDUE, AND OTHER IMPORTANT CLIENTS

CASTLE BLUNDEN The 'residue' contents of Castle Blunden are now coming under the hammer. The sale is about to happen. We look on with mixed emotions at the break up of our family home into the articles of furniture, pictures, glass, tea sets, kettles, typewriters, books, gumboots, presses, tables and all sorts of other things - including our beloved doll's house... all for sale and about to enjoy a new life!

Of course it is sad to see these things go - we are emotionally attached to them and the place through growing up at Castle Blunden. The handover to a nephew meant we girls of the twentieth century were expected to seek our fortunes in other places. Our generation was neatly skipped over. Four of the six Blunden girls now live elsewhere - scattered to the four winds: Jane to Mongolia, Caroline to China, Lizzie to Australia and Fiona to America. Our stories and careers are summarised in this catalogue.

Caroline is now on the London Advisory Board of Opera Prelude that supports young singers. Fiona restores and gilds antiques with gold leaf. Lizzie offers private homes to families to holiday by the sea. Jane is launching her new career as an artist in California with abstract drawings that express more than words.

The Blundens arrived in Kilkenny in the 17th century. Castle Blunden was built in the mid 18th century. The family integrated and survived through the 18th century by marrying heiresses, and through the 19th century's turbulent times by being honest and decent - keeping their heads down and playing chess.

Pioneering spirit is never dampened. Young William Blunden - later to become 4th Baronet - set sail for New Zealand in the 1870s.

Trained as a surgeon, he married into one of New Zealand's greatest settler families - that of Ernest Rutherford, the father of modern physics. Sir William and his wife Florence Caroline and their children returned to Kilkenny at the start of the 20th century.