Abbotsford Street | Melbourne Streets

Abbotsford Street, on the corner of Queensberry Street looking south, photographer Stephen Hatcher, 2020.

Abbotsford Street runs like a spine through North and West Melbourne. Its unusual name springs from a connection with famous Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott and his home in the Scottish Boarders.

In about 1811, Scott bought his 100-acre Cartley Hole farm on the river Tweed. The site had a personal significance for him as it was close to the site of a final clan battle involving his forebears in 1526.

In 1824, he built a new home on the farm, which he called Abbotsford House. The name was inspired by a nearby abbot’s ford across the shallows of the Tweed, used by Cistercian monks from the neighbouring Melrose Abbey, as they moved their cattle safely across the river.

The Abbotsford Street we know today has its own rich history far removed from its namesake in Scotland. It was, like the rest of Melbourne, in an area of open bushland occupied by the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation.

Some of the earliest homes in Abbotsford Street went up as early as 1859. Number 86 Abbotsford was built by Robert Bentley, an Englishman from Staffordshire, after he married Martha Redfern in 1841. They were both about 23 when the decided to seek a better life in the developing colony of Port Phillip.

Robert and Martha’s arrival record PROV VPRS 14

After a three-month voyage on the England as assisted migrants, they arrived in Melbourne in July 1841. Robert was a master carpenter and built homes in North and West Melbourne. Martha was to give birth to 11 children, her last at the age of 43.

Next door to the Bentleys, at number 88 Abbotsford, Margaret O’Reilly ran a boarding house.

A wonderful photo from about 1900 shows her out the front with grandchildren Mary, Dennis, Jack, Ann and Norah, and their mother Margaret O’Reilly Sheehan.

Nowdays, Abbotsford Street is a significant link between North and West Melbourne. It begins at number one on the western corner of its first cross street at Railway Place and runs northwards towards Royal Park where it ends at number 525.

Source: North and West Melbourne News Winter edition 2020. Abbotsford Street has a link to the Scottish Boarders, page 13 by Stephen Hatcher

Northern Advertiser, May 1970

What’s In A Name?

As the early settlers in some of North & West Melbourne’s Streets were mainly Scots, these streets received Scottish names. Hence Abbotsford Street after the home of Sir Walter Scott built by the river Tweed.

The original name of that place was “Cartley Hole.” The locals twisted this to “Clarty Hole”, meaning “Dirty Hole”. This showed what they thought of the place — a little farm house in 100 acres sprawling sour and neglected in a hollow by the river.

The place was dear to Scott as the site of the last clan battle between his forbears and the Kers in 1526 and as the reputed haunt of Thomas the Rhymer who, 60 years before, had woven into verse the legends and histories of the land, as Scott was to do in his day. So in 1811, at the age of 40, Scott bought the place.

Scott set himself to transform the place and began by renaming it. There had been an abbots’ ford across the shallows of the river, over which the Abbots of nearby Melrose Abbey had driven their cattle centuries before. Hence the new name.

In five years, the 100 acre “Dirty Hole” became an estate of 1000 acres. By banking the river, planting trees of many kinds, and general landscaping Scott created a most colorful scene. Piece by piece, at heavy expense, the present house was built.

By every artistic and architectural standard the house is a monstrosity; but Scott’s life and work have made it one of Scotlands great shrines. It is a museum of Scottish lore with relics of Rob Roy, Flora Macdonald, Queen Mary, Montrose, Claverhouse and Bonnie Prince Charlie. Also housed there is a copy of the first published book of Australian verse. ⁽¹⁾

Source.

(1) Northern Advertiser 28/5/1970. Blanchard collection, “What’s in a Name” at North Melbourne Library. (Contributed by History Work Group of North Melbourne Association) Dr. R. Blanchard, convener.
(2) Melbourne Council Street Card Number #367, street gazetted in 1860 and 1867.

3 Abbotsford Street

West Melbourne VIC 3003

Previous Address 6 Heaton Terrace (3-13)
Constructed 2012