Abbeygreen Manse – was the former Manse house for the nearby Burleigh Church (East United Free Church) and had address 4 Church Street adjoining to Abbeygreen Building at 2 Church Street. Abbeygreen Manse was built in 1899 prior to September that year.
The first mention in census appears to be in 1901, where the Rev John Burleigh, then a 50-year-old widower was living with 28-year-old Grace Cameron, a domestic servant hailing from Stonehouse.
John’s previous wife Marion Braid, 6 years his junior, died on 7th July 1892 at a young age and consequently, he had moved out of his previous home at Coatshill Cottage where he had lived since 1889 with his wife and father in law Andrew Braid (b1912- d1897), a retired grocer.
Abbeygreen Manse house is described as having 5 rooms each with one window or more. In 1905, the manse was owned and occupied by the Rev John Burleigh. According to the valuation roll that year, the house split into two and was called Abbeygreen Manse and Abbeygreen Building, which was let out to Mrs Grace Lennox (who is not the same Grace noted as a servant girl earlier. This Grace was elderly and had lived at Abbey Green Building since 1901 when she is noted as being 66 years old). The Burleigh family lived at the Abbeygreen Manse.
By 1911, John Burleigh was 60 years old and still single, but living with 35 year old servant Grace Hunter. John would pass away in 1922, leaving the house to a Janet Burleigh, possibly a sister.
According to the 1925 Valuation roll, Abbeygreen is a house at 2 Church Street owned and occupied by Mrs Janet Burleigh.
By 1930, Janet still owned adjacent 4 Church Street, which looks likely to have been also included under the name “Abbeygreen”. However, she was not living there at that time. She also owned consulting rooms at 141 Glasgow Road.
Abbeygreen is still shown on the 1936 map (pictured), although by that time it was not noted as being the manse. I suspect it was a casualty of Glasgow Road redevelopment in the 1970’s, but if you know roughly when it was demolished, I would love to hear from you!
Pictured today where the new trees are sprouting from at the junction of Church Street and Glasgow Road is the former site of Abbeygreen Manse.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2017
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