Johnstone Burial Ground

[MonicaL]

That thread goes to back to 2005. Let's hope by now that originals are in safe storage and copies made 

Mon

[Ian Nelson]

Sorry Ewan, I've been away.   I just clicked on a desktop shortcut I have for the National Library of Scotland maps section and looked at the first oldish map of Johnstone without noting the exact date of it.  It looked 1930s and Cemetery Road did originate in Thornhill area and showed a built up area south west of Elderslie.
cheers, Ian

[Ian Nelson]

I read that other thread that was hyperlinked and it mentioned one of the burials was at Abbey .. the presumption would perhaps be Paisley Abbey ... BUT ... the cemetery I referred to is shown as ABBEY CEMETERY although I can see no Abbey in the vicinity.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=55.83366&lon=-4.48735&layers=193&b=1

cheers, Ian

[Ian Nelson]

even stranger, till you think about it.  To the south east of Abbey Cemetery ( Elderslie ) there is ABBEY ROAD which is a very short road but perhaps in ancient times was part of the road that lead to Paisley Abbey

[hydrurga]

Thanks Ian. That would explain it. I learned today that Abbey Cemetery was opened in 1887. The whole parish, which became a civil parish, was called Abbey parish, named as you say after Paisley Abbey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey,_Renfrewshire), so I reckon that the Cemetery was probably called Abbey Cemetery purely because it was the cemetery to be used for burials within the civil parish of Abbey.

From perusing the maps, it appears that Abbey Road was built leading to the cemetery from the east in the 1950s when new houses were built along it. Eventually the name Abbey Road also supplanted Cemetery Road to the cemetery's NW as this new road was extended around the cemetery to join up with Cemetery Road. Perhaps "Cemetery Road" wasn't quite what folk wanted as an address.

[RJ_Paton]

Thanks Ian. That would explain it. I learned today that Abbey Cemetery was opened in 1887. The whole parish, which became a civil parish, was called Abbey parish, named as you say after Paisley Abbey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey,_Renfrewshire), so I reckon that the Cemetery was probably called Abbey Cemetery purely because it was the cemetery to be used for burials within the civil parish of Abbey.

From perusing the maps, it appears that Abbey Road was built leading to the cemetery from the east in the 1950s when new houses were built along it. Eventually the name Abbey Road also supplanted Cemetery Road to the cemetery's NW as this new road was extended around the cemetery to join up with Cemetery Road. Perhaps "Cemetery Road" wasn't quite what folk wanted as an address.

I don't know where Wikioedia has gotten its information from but in this case it's misleading - The Abbey Parish pre-dates Civil registration by quite a margin - the Church of Scotland Records start around 1650 and before that there would have been pre-reformation Roman catholic records for the same area (although if you find any of these it would be very surprising). When Civil registration began in 1855 they initially adopted the majority (if not all) of the existing Church parish Boundaries and names and named these as Civil registration Districts.