Built at the start of the 20th Century, Talbot's Inch, a picturesque village, stands on the banks of the River Nore on the northern suburbs of Kilkenny City. Contemporary accounts described Talbot's Inch as a "garden village" but it is more accurately described as a model village. A typical model village consists of a self-contained community in close proximity to, but separate from an industrial centre.  Workers' houses tend to be of a high standard with integrated community amenities. This is the case with Talbots Inch which included a tennis court, a handball alley, a cricket green, a large green area and attractive physical environments.  The term "Model" is used in the sense of an ideal place to which other developments could aspire.

 

Lady Ellen Odette Cuffe (Lady Desart) who, along with her brother-in-law, Captain Otway Cuffe, were responsible for the development of Talbot's Inch.

 

The origins of Talbot's Inch are much to do with the endeavours of Ellen Cuffe, fourth Countess Desart, and her brother-in-law, Captain Otway Cuffe, to improve the living conditions of workers employed at the Kilkenny Woodworkers Company and the Greenvale Woollen Mills on the opposite bank of the River Nore.

 

Lady Desart would later be appointed (1922) to the first Seanad Éireann, the first Jew to serve as a Senator in the world, and would also succeed Captain Cuffe as President of the Kilkenny branch of the Gaelic League (founded 1893).

 

One of the primary objectives of the Gaelic League was to foster and promote industry and to bring about a strong national identity through the encouragement of traditional Irish crafts, customs and native language. This philosophy is evident in any of Lady Desart's many works. Standish O' Grady, the so-called "Father of the Celtic Revival", at the same time called on the Ascendancy to 'reshape themselves in a heroic mould', thus encouraging a philanthropic spirit among the gentry.  The development of industrial activity at Talbot's Inch was the Cuffes' valiant attempt to achieve these goals.

 

Talbot's Inch was designed and built to a master plan devised by William Alphonsus Scott and exemplifies the fashionable Arts-and-Crafts style of the period.  Originating in late nineteenth-century England the Arts-and-Crafts movement was associated particularly with John Ruskin and the designer and theorist William Morris. It emphasised the importance of craft and materials in the hope that workers would take joy and pride in their handcrafted work.  Captain Cuffe befriended Morris while travelling in Iceland and, a subscriber to the Arts-and-Crafts movement, endeavoured to implement its ideas at Talbot's Inch.